A Shower of Kisses
by Kefra
Summary: This is a collection of 36 lighthearted, humorous, and romantic short stories featuring Yoh and Anna. Your comments, criticism, suggestions are all welcome. More stories coming soon, I promise!
1. Author's Note, A Labor of Love

(There's no story here, just an author's note. Proceed to Chapter 2 if this doesn't interest you. You won't miss out on anything.)

A Labor of Love

_Kiss #0_

"A Shower of Kisses" began in August 2007, while I was still an undergraduate in my university's English program. I was just about to return to school after a one-semester hiatus and wanted to practice writing romance, a genre which I had never seriously attempted before. My love life was practically nonexistent*, and I've always believed that good writing draws from personal experience. Maybe that's why writing these stories has been so challenging, and so colored by my own life's story. Perhaps I relate to Yoh, a young man who tries so hard to do right by the one he loves yet never seems to reap the rewards of his behavior. Perhaps, to a somewhat embittered person such as myself, every love interest seems like Anna – the unobtainable, intimidating woman of few words and fewer kind gestures. Whatever the reason, I found that I enjoyed the challenge of writing a genre I had never before explored.

Five years after its inception, this collection has grown to encompass over 30 stories. It might surprise you to learn that I, like many of the readers for whom I am so grateful, have my favorites too. Skimming through the collection one chapter at a time, I can see my growth as a writer. (Give me another two hundred years or so and I might finally become a real author.) Naturally, I also have my regrets. There are stories here, particularly older ones, that I now know are not representative of the quality of writing I strive for with every new chapter. But my greatest regret is that a lot has changed in five years, and I no longer have the free time to publish new chapters nearly as frequently as I once did. Since 2009 I have written barely a half-dozen new chapters.

I know that I owe it to you – the fans who have supported me for nearly five years now – to continue my stories to the best of my ability. Begging for reviews is not my intention here, but I will say truthfully that nothing makes me want to put my other hobbies on hold for another weekend and start typing like seeing a new review. If you're shy, lazy, or can't seem to find the words to express your opinion, I don't expect you to suddenly write me a five-paragraph critique. But if you liked a story, didn't think a story worked, or just wanted me to know you read _all_ thirty-something chapters, it'll only take a minute, I'll be so grateful, and a new chapter will hit sooner than you think.

Ah, heck. A thousand reviews or none at all – thank you, every one of you, for reading. I always wanted to be a professional author, and although my vocation has diverged from that path, the dream lives on with each and every reader I'm lucky enough to get. You've all made it such a wonderful five years. Here's to five more. Hopefully with more reviews!

-"Kefra," January 18, 2012

*It's still nonexistent. Do any of my readers want to help change this? :P

* * *

Latest Updates

1/31/12 Kiss #35, "Exorcism"

1/18/12 Kiss #0, "A Labor of Love" (Author's Note)

1/13/12 Kiss #34, "Restless Spirits"

7/17/11 Kiss #33, "Neatness Counts"

8/6/10 Kiss #32, "Valentine's Day Meltdown"

2/6/10 Kiss #31, "Punch Drunk"

* * *

Standard Disclaimer: "Shaman King®" and all related characters and indicia are the intellectual property of VIZ Communications, Inc., in the U.S. and other territories, and of other entities elsewhere. The author makes no claim of ownership to these rights.

Another Disclaimer: The author of the works contained herein reserves some rights to them under the Creative Commons License. Check the author's profile page for more details.


	2. A Love That Burns, Literally

Summary: Yoh's wasting his time trying his hand at construction, Anna is snatched from her spot before the TV, and neither is exactly pleased with the other…or so it seems. Will they reconcile? Read on to find out.

Written: Over a 6-hour stretch during the boring afternoon/evening of 8/1/07.

Rating: **T **for some **coarse language **and moderate **romantic themes.**

A Love That Burns…Literally

_Kiss #1_

Yoh was breathing hard, and it had nothing to do with the twenty-five miles he had run that morning, or the three hundred crunches he had just executed after lunch. Rather, he was excited over the work he was just about to complete. He hummed in time with the music blaring over his signature headphones, a sort of musical mumbling since he was holding several iron nails between his lips.

Removing one with his fingers, he rotated the wooden object upon the table in his room, placed another plank of wood onto its side. He held the nail in place as steadily as he could, for he was palpitating with excitement over finally completing his project. He firmly grasped his hammer's handle, lined up his swing, and began to pound the nail inwards...

He didn't know what shocked him more--the fact that the hammer caught the cord of his headphones on the upswing, or a clearly annoyed voice from downstairs shrieking, "What the hell is that racket?! I'm trying to watch TV here!"

Yoh knelt to retrieve both his headphones, which were lying askew before his bed, and the hammer he had dropped in panic, and called out, "Sorry, Anna!"

Luckily he needed to leave the house to put the finishing touches on his masterpiece anyway, so it was with no annoyance that he swept up the wooden contraption and headed downstairs with his toolbox. As he passed by the living room, Anna spoke. "Yoh, have you seen the remote anywhere? _As The World Rotates _is on next and I can't stand that show," she explained, her eyes never wavering from the television.

"No, I haven't," Yoh answered, in exactly the opposite fashion, his eyes glued to the back of her head.

"Dammit," she spat, pushing herself off her elbow and side and getting up to change the channel.

Yoh made his way outside, smiling; he knew that the misplaced remote boded well for him, strangely enough. He laid the wooden contraption upon a workbench and hammered in the last few nails, then applied some sandpaper to smooth out the rough spots. He began to rummage through the toolbox for a woodburner, so he could write an inscription.

"Huh, I could have sworn there was one in here..." His fingertips closed upon a thin cylindrical grip. "Aha! Found--" He withdrew the tool, holding it up to his eyes to clearly see it was a screwdriver.

"Maybe not. Hell, what do I know about tools?" He briefly considered shelving the project until tomorrow, since his precious free time for the day was quickly running out, but he knew within his heart he wanted to finish it quickly. There was only one thing left to do, but at least it was one of Yoh's strengths: improvising wildly.

At the bottom of the toolbox was a first-aid kit; he ruffled through its contents until he found the book of matches he used to sterilize needles. He painfully remembered having to dig out a splinter with such a needle yesterday, and was thankful he only needed the matches now. He tore some empty bandage wrappers to shreds, and pushed them into a little pile along with the bits of wood he had sandpapered off.

_Success! _Yoh thought excitedly, as the wrappers first blackened, then danced with vibrant, orange-yellow flames. He placed the head of the screwdriver into the fire until it glowed faintly, then began etching letters into the wood. Never a neat writer, Yoh was surprised how naturally the engraving came to him.

Excitement coursed through his veins now as he picked up a spray can of lacquer to apply the finishing touch. He held his breath and sprized on the varnish until the natural woodgrain took on a glassy shine.

"All done!" he said to himself, rolling the can to his side and bending over slightly to pick up his completed work. "Oh crap, wait a min--"

Unfortunately, fires and aerosol cans don't wait, even for powerful shamans. A deafening _KRACK!! _echoed off the exterior of the En Inn, followed by the low, rumbling sound of oncoming rushing air. The invisible pressurized vapors surged into a conflagration as they passed over the open fire, and little balls of flame flew out at every angle.

Yoh didn't see any of this, however; he had ducked under the workbench once he had realized his error. The flashfire was gone as fast as it had erupted, and the only visible remnants from where he was squatting were two bloated, charred halves of an aerosol can. The only thing he feared now was repercussion from Anna for disturbing her soap operas twice in the same hour, but a slap was much better than agonizing third-degree burns.

He crawled out from under the bench. At least he had finally completed--

"Oh, shit!!"

Blind panic clouded Yoh's brain again as his eyes took in the sight. A flame was licking up the corner of his project, dancing upwards, and he acted upon instinct once more. With his bare hands he batted at the flame, smothering it out into the very wood it consumed. He surveyed the damage; the bottom right corner was blackened, but it could have been worse.

"Thank God," he sighed, as he made to pick it up off the bench at last--

"Yaaaargh!!" Yoh bellowed when his singed fingertips touched the sides of his project. He had examined it, but his burned fingers had gone unnoticed in his premature relief. Now he saw the reddened, blistering blight glowing upon them, accompanied by a dull pain that surged to agony whenever they so much as brushed another object.

To top it all off, at that moment a figure emerged from the doorway behind him. She would have been breathtaking at any other time, but now she was stunning in a completely different way. Her normally attractive eyes were narrowed to dangerous slits, a deep line bisected her otherwise smooth brow, and her delicate hands were crunched in tight fists.

"Anna!" Yoh cried out, but whether it was out of fear or sudden pain from his fingers, he didn't know.

"You're lucky it happened during a commercial," she chided. Her eyes came to rest upon the burned-out circle around the two halves of aerosol can. "Oh, for the love of..."

Yoh gulped.

"You were playing with fire?! Of all the stupid injuries...You didn't burn yourself, did you?" Yoh made to hide his hands behind his back, but the abruptness of his motion combined with the sudden grimace that appeared on his face gave him away.

"Let me see that!" she demanded, grabbing his wrist; Yoh didn't try to dodge for fear of grazing something with his blistered fingers. She turned his hands over so they were palms-up, and gave a little gasp.

Yoh risked a glance at Anna then. Her angry demeanor had dissipated, and concern shone through her widened eyes. She loosened her grip on his wrists, and he felt her fingertips gently running up, toward the bottom joints of his fingers, half massaging, half caressing, and he was thankful she was still starting at his burns, or she would have noticed the redness and heat in his cheeks that was more intense than the fire that had injured him…

She looked up suddenly and froze. The frown and narrowed eyes returned, though they looked somewhat forced. Anna released his hands and pushed them away more roughly than she meant to, out of her own embarrasment, and turned away before Yoh could notice the gentle blush that was beginning to tinge her features. "You're hopless," she said abruptly, with an anger that sounded as forced to Yoh's ears as they were from Anna's lips. "Come here and I'll get you some ice water to soak your burns in. Don't just stand there!" she implored, as Yoh stood stationary, trying to size up Anna's true feelings. "If you make me miss one second of _Nights of Our Lives_ I swear I'll make you hurt so bad you'll forget about these blisters!"

Anna grasped Yoh's wrists again in the kitchen, plunging his aching fingers into a bowl of frosty water. Despite the sudden chill, Yoh felt a warmth flushing his face again as she guided his hands into the bowl, and noticed she pointedly looked away from him, as though she were trying to hide a similar problem from him…

She sighed, still looking at everything in the kitchen but Yoh. "Guess this means I'm cooking tonight. Honestly, if you were going to burn yourself horribly, couldn't you at least have done it on the stove?" She exited the room, and Yoh continued sitting there, the warmth gradually leaving his face, until all he could feel was numbness on his fingertips. He felt like a Buddhist meditating, sitting cross-legged on an uncomfortable stool, his hands clasped in front of him, soothing his blisters.

Soon, however, he grew bored overhearing the melodrama of Anna's favorite show. Rising off the stool and stretching out, he went to the workbench outside to retrieve his work, at long last. When he reentered, the sounds of the TV had been replaced by the jarring sound of a knife hitting a cutting board; Anna had begun preparing dinner. Yoh seized his opportunity and crept before the TV, digging his fingers under the couch cushions. Sure enough, he found the wayward remote--Anna always seemed to toss it behind her after channel surfing, where it promptly buried itself along with several hundred yen in pocket change. He even found the program listings under there. He was so wrapped up in getting the goods back upstairs that his nervously twiddling thumb brushed against the remote's buttons--

"…Bocky™ brand pretzel sticks! Now available in Horseradish flavor! Try them today!"

"Shit!" Yoh fumbled with the remote; the sudden silence lasted barely two seconds before a high-pitched cry from the kitchen interrupted. "If I have to make dinner, you don't get to watch TV!"

He made it upstairs and didn't bother shutting his door. Amidamaru was floating above his bed, but when Yoh entered, his ethereal pauldrons leapt a foot in the air, and his ghostly features brightened.

"Yoh-dono! I overheard about your injury. Are you all right?"

"Yea, Amidamaru, my fingers are fine," he said, his voice trailing off as he slammed the things he was carrying onto the bed.

"I suspect, then, that your true injuries lie elsewhere, perhaps in the _ki_ or the _kokoro_--the spirit, the heart. Might I be correct?"

Yoh bit his lip slightly and nodded. "I just don't understand Anna sometimes."

The samurai shifted his chain mail bracers before speaking. "Your fiancé is…more straightforward than most people. Perhaps, when she believes in and cares for somebody as deeply as she does for you, she can only find fault with them. Maybe it's because she truly wants to iron out your imperfections so that you can become an even better person; maybe she just doesn't want to waste time lavishing kind words upon somebody who already has all the reason in the world to feel good about himself."

Yoh looked stunned. "She…_and _you…think that about me?" He was so shocked he didn't notice the creaking steps that signaled the approach of another person, a person whose delicate fingers smelled strongly of chopped onions and minced garlic…

"Certainly, Yoh-dono. I am honor bound to serve you and your fiancé is bound by arrangement to marry you. But neither of us would willingly leave you."

Yoh felt a warm tingle behind his eyelids and blinked. "Th-thank you, Amidamaru."

"Think nothing of it, Yoh-dono."

Blinking hard, he nodded. "I…I would be alone for awhile, please."

The spirit gave a deep bow, nodded, and melted through the wall. Yoh sat on the edge of his bed, mindlessly fidgeting with the wooden object he had made not an hour ago, wondering why his eyes were still watering--

"Alone for awhile…but not for long, I hope?"

The voice from just outside his door was familiar, yet vastly different, gentler, warmer. Yoh cleared his throat and hid the object under his sheets.

"Amidamaru is right, you know," she said softly, this time not bothering to hide the gentle blush that accompanied her words.

"Oh, Anna," he whispered, the words becoming harder to speak, "remember when we were kids? You always used to make me cry. But this time's different, it's better, I'm happy--" and he choked on the ending of his planned sentence, weeping silently into his shirt sleeve.

Anna walked over to Yoh and draped a slender arm around his shoulders. "No, it's the same. It's always been the same, Yoh. I've always felt this way about you…" She was about to take a seat next to him, but she sat down on something hard. "Eh, what's this, Yoh?"

Yoh shook off the sudden shock of feeling Anna's warm arm against the back of his neck, and the confession she had just made. "Huh? Oh…Well, um, I found the remote."

And with that he flipped up the sheets with a flourish, revealing his creation. The remote control sat next to the week's booklet of TV listings, housed in a wooden nook. At the top was a heart-shaped hole for hanging, and on its front was a burn mark. Anna looked from it to Yoh's blistered fingers and understood. "You did this…all this…for…?"

She saw more burn marks on the front, but these were controlled; they spelled words. Anna squinted her moist eyes and read Yoh's inscription:

"The channels may change but my love for you never will."

Anna could say nothing; her eyes watered and tears slid down onto her elated smile. She sat down next to Yoh, who turned towards her. Yoh's back felt warm and smooth to her hands, and Anna's felt comforting and silky to his; their faces drew ever nearer, until their lips brushed; Yoh pulled away slightly in shock but Anna advanced faster, and they kissed for the first time, slightly awkwardly but very passionately.

He was just beginning to reconcile with the fact that the slap he had been expecting wouldn't come, when Anna broke away abruptly.

Yoh was too dazed from the sequence of events to form any words, but Anna saw his utterly confounded face. With a parting peck on his cheek, she headed towards the door, calling over her shoulder, "I left the vegetables on the stove. If I leave them any longer they're gonna be a soupy mess."

Yoh had nearly convinced himself for sure that he hadn't imagined it at all, that Anna really did say she loved him, that their lips really had just touched, when a shriek from downstairs derailed his train of thought. "Yaaaargh!!"

By the time he ran into the kitchen, he knew exactly what to say and do. He poured a bowl of ice water for Anna, guided her fingers into the chill, and said, with a smirk, "Honestly, Anna, if you're going to burn yourself horribly, couldn't you at least have done it making a surprise for me?"

Anna merely smiled, looked deeply into Yoh's eyes and, with her free hand, tousled his black bangs gently. "Oh Yoh…you better believe I have a surprise for you," she whispered as she drew his face nearer to hers…


	3. Poolside Panic

Summary: Things go from bad to worse during Yoh and Anna's visit to the pool on a sweltering summer day. What happens when they're finally in the water together?

Written: The evening of 8/2/07.

Rating: **T **for **strong suggestive themes** and **dialogue.** Barely avoided the M rating in my opinion. You've been warned (or enticed, as the case may be)!

Author's note: Probably one of the more humorous stories I'll include in this collection, but there's still a healthy dose of romance here. _Baka_ is written with the Chinese characters for "horse" and "deer," and means "stupid" in Japanese. Helvetica is a font; if you have it, you can see what it looks like yourself. If not, it looks almost exactly like Arial, which every computer must have by now. Bah, I'll shut up now, enjoy!

Poolside Panic

_Kiss #2_

Manta Oyamada slung his duffel bag over his shoulder, its bulging sides almost bigger than his entire body. Still dripping wet, and reeking of chlorine, he was eager to hit the showers and towel off. He was just about to set foot into the shower room, however, when he heard two voices speaking softly but with intensity:

"Come on, work it in there!" demanded the higher of the two voices.

"Alright," grunted the lower voice, "but now your back is all white and sticky and smells funny! Are you sure--"

"More! Squirt more on my back!" the other voice demanded.

"I think that's all I can give you," came the weary reply.

Embarrassment and curiosity battled each other in Manta's mind, but the curiosity won and he peeked around the corner to see the well-defined bare back of a black-haired young man leaning slightly over the figure of a blond girl on her knees. The young man shifted slightly and began pumping something furiously between his legs--

Manta gave a slight gasp--he recognized the two figures. He knew he probably should have turned around and left, but he blurted out, "Y-Yoh! Anna! I-I…"

Slightly startled, Yoh turned around, revealing the object that had been between his legs to be a thoroughly expended tube of sunscreen. Anna, meanwhile, looked up and gave Manta an ambivalent look of recognition.

"Manta! What brings you to the pool?" Yoh asked, tossing the empty tube aside and favoring his diminutive friend with a wave.

"The heat," answered Manta simply, returning Yoh's wave and giving Anna a polite nod. "You two here for some training or something?"

"What we do on our own time is our business," Anna began, smoothing out some uneven lumps of sunscreen on her arms, but her fiancée broke in, mortified.

"Anna, please! Manta, we came to the pool for the same reason as you. I'm just dripping with sweat, and Anna's really hot too." The words had barely left his lips before he realized the double-entendre he had just spoken. "Errr--that is, I mean, uh, we're both hot, dah I mean, that is to say, we needed a dip in the pool to cool off! Yeah."

Yoh grinned sheepishly, a distinct red tinge burning in his face; Manta gave a little chuckle. Anna took a single step backwards, crossed her arms, and parted her lips to utter one word.

"Smooth."

"Like sandpaper, really," babbled Yoh. He chanced a look at her, flaxen strands of hair tickling her bare shoulders, a nearly illegally tight bikini barely censoring her fleshy curves…_Could you blame me for saying you're really hot?_ he thought, before he noticed her seething expression and turned to Manta. "Well uh, guess we'll be heading to the pool now. See ya later, Manta."

Yoh hadn't even gotten his toes wet before Anna rounded on him, grasping his slender yet surprisingly meaty shoulder in a slim-fingered death grip. He winced. "Owww--"

"What is the matter with you, embarrassing me like that in front of your _friend_?" the blonde demanded, releasing his shoulder only to wind up for a slap. She spat the word "friend" like a filthy slur.

The brunette brushed his shoulder off, briefly inspecting the white finger lines where all the blood had been squeezed from his flesh. _So I accidentally let it slip that you're very pretty, Anna. What's the big deal?_ he wanted to reply, but instead lowered his head slightly. "You're right, it was pretty humiliating. I'm sorry." Without looking back to see Anna's response, he took several long strides towards the deep end of the pool, curled his toes upon the edge, tucked his head down slightly, extended his arms, and prepared to dive--

"You better be sorry! _Baka!_" she bellowed, and with a mighty body slam, sent Yoh's precariously balancing figure sprawling off the deck into the deep end. He freaked out, somehow executed a somersault in the air with his random flailing, and smacked the glassine surface of the water full force with his stomach. His abs were toned and firm, but the water was harder, and his gut stung sharply, as though she had, even now, standing on the deck and glaring at him with seemingly sadomasochistic glee, reached out with her hand and slapped him in the torso with an immense, sloppy hand.

Yoh gasped sharply at the sudden onslaught of pain, but as he did he began to sink, and he coughed as the water he had inhaled assaulted his nostrils and windpipe. Somewhere through the panic and the sinking it occurred to him that breathing would be a good idea. He jabbed at his watery prison with kicks and clawed hands and felt himself buoying, until it felt as though someone had cracked an egg upon his head, and he gulped in air.

His face red from asphyxiation, his entire front redder from his unexpected belly flop, he bobbed to the side of the pool, catching his breath. Anna gave him one last cold stare before she spread out her towel and perched herself on it.

Inwardly Yoh sighed. She was the one who wanted to go to the pool in the first place, and now she was just lying there, sunbathing on a towel. _If she wants to get darker skin, maybe she should just do a belly flop like me_, he thought bitterly.

The stinging and choking aside, however, Yoh felt the heat of the early afternoon wash away from him as he floated in the water. It was easy to forget Anna's anger towards him then, with his back supported by a refreshing blue wall that gently ebbed and flowed, licking at his ankles and toes, lapping over his outstretched arms.

It had been a long time since he last went swimming, but for him it was like riding a bicycle. He glided through the water easily with every move he picked up during his childhood. After several minutes of breaststrokes, backstrokes and dolphin kicks, Yoh's heart was racing, but he remained cool.

Anna was still lying upon her towel, but she kept glancing at the pool longingly, wondering if it was worth swallowing her pride in order to take a dip in its invigorating depths…

"Anna!" Yoh called, his body propped upon his arms, crossed onto the deck. "How can you stand that? It's sweltering!"

"I'm tough like that," she answered, the iciness in her response nearly making the temperature of the day bearable.

"Come on! You don't know what you're missing," Yoh wheedled, rippling the water near him with his index finger.

"I know what I'm missing," she hissed. "It's the peace and quiet I was enjoying up until a minute ago."

Yoh's shoulders sank, and he sighed quietly. "Please, Anna," he beseeched, and suddenly the water's temperature seemed colder and unwelcome against his skin. "I'm sorry for embarrassing you. Can't we still have a pleasant swim before we have to go?"

She said nothing, and continued staring with a noncommittal expression into his pleading eyes. A new heat began seeping up her spine and into her face, a heat that had nothing to do with the harsh sun but had everything to do with her equally sharp words to Yoh--

Abruptly she stood up, the guilt winning out over her pride, but there was no way she would give him any sign of the regret she was now beginning to feel. "Move over, 'tard, I'm coming in," she said flatly.

Yoh grinned childishly, as though Anna's sudden change of heart meant they'd be going out for ice cream and cotton candy. Not really thinking clearly through his sudden glee, he playfully cupped his hands upon the water's surface and squeezed, sending an arch of crystal water up out of the pool and onto Anna's hair…

"Gotcha!" Yoh cried exuberantly. He felt unspeakably giddy all of a sudden, and didn't care much that Anna now looked livid once more.

"You son of a…You do that _one more time,_ and I swear I'll slap you like a pimp on crack!"

For some reason, Anna's comment caused his cup of giddiness to run over, and he began laughing uncontrollably. "Pimp on crack…you _crack_ me up!"

It was a horrible pun, but Anna hesitated for a moment, and the faintest traces of a smile seemed to snatch the corners of her mouth. Yoh remained oblivious, however, and cupped his hands together again, launching more volleys of water upwards with precisely aimed squeezes…

"That's it! You're going down!" she swore after taking the last of the jets full in her face. Sputtering and squinting, she charged towards Yoh, her legs propelling her heroically towards him, her face now displaying an odd mixture of vengeance and the playful exuberance that was still overwhelming her fiancé. He dodged nimbly, propelling himself from the poolside by kicking off the wall and gliding on his back.

It was Anna's turn to scramble wildly in the air now; she kicked her feet like a cartoon character running out of cliff, hoping to defy physics and tread upon the water's surface, and it almost worked. But when her foot touched the cool water, she flipped forward abruptly, clashing against the pool's surface with a thundering _smack!_

Anna gave a little shriek and a gagging noise, drowned out by Yoh's laughter. He still didn't quite know what had made him so irreverently happy, as he knew she would probably strangle him two seconds after she swam over to him. He was safe for now, though; he could see nothing of Anna above the surface aside from her hair, which bobbed and pulsed with the currents and resembled a blond jellyfish.

It occurred to him that Anna was sure capable of holding her breath for a long stretch. He watched her drift slowly to the bottom of the pool, obscured and darkened by six feet of water, then seven, eight, nine…She sank slowly and with an utter lack of resistance or motion, almost as though she were dreaming, or unconscious…

Yoh snapped out of his jocund mood immediately. "Anna? _Anna?!_" he called out, before realizing she could neither hear nor reply to his cries even if she were fine. He took a deep breath, feeling shivers of fear and adrenaline squirm up and down his back as he did so, and plunged into the depths of the pool.

Yoh kicked and stroked his way lower, towards the figure that crouched oddly upon the gritty bottom of the pool. She looked disturbingly like a puppet gone slack: She was hunched over at a nearly impossible angle, her arms drifting mindlessly with the currents, her eyes vacuous, her skin pale.

He propped her limp figure against his front, securing her waist and neck with his arm and shoulder, and kicked off the floor of the pool as hard as he could. Yoh wondered why she felt so very heavy, considering her slender, delicate figure, and he felt a hungering in his lungs and chest, a constricting pressure, and his vision began to contract. He kicked harder, the burning in his lungs creeping to his limbs, up the tunnel of blue, holding Anna tightly before him like a shield, and he thought he saw the tunnel lightening to a radiant yellow as he gave one last heroic kick and everything burned white…

Somehow he found himself crouched before Anna's form, still dizzy and lightheaded, but breathing. _Breathing._ The word sent new torrents of panic through Yoh's brain, for as far as he could tell, Anna was _not _breathing. He clutched Anna's shoulders firmly, feeling the clamminess of her skin, and shook them vigorously. "Anna!"

She did not stir. Desperation pounded at the back of Yoh's head and he decided he would need to try his hand at performing artificial respiration. He drew closer to her pale face and inhaled sharply--

_TWEEEEET!!!_ Yoh looked up, exhaling as sharply as he had just breathed in. "You two, cut it out! This is a public pool, not a love hotel sauna! Break it up or I'll break you up!" The whistle-blower ran closer, approaching Yoh, who read the bold Helvetica writing on his faded yellow shirt: **LIFEGUARD**.

"It's--it's not what it looks like, I swear! She nearly drowned and I--I thought maybe I should try CPR…"

The lifeguard sneered at Yoh, then squinted at Anna's unmoving figure. Suddenly he licked his lips, Anna's curvaceous, lifeless body reflecting off his beady pupils. "CPR, eh? Step aside, Junior, I'll tend to this young lass," he said lasciviously.

Yoh watched with commingled relief and apprehension as the lifeguard knelt before Anna's head. His aroused lips descended towards Anna's face, descending rapidly, until they nearly brushed--

"Yeow!!" The lifeguard sprawled backwards, stumbling from the force of Anna's sudden slap.

Yoh gasped audibly and gave a little leap into the air. "Anna!"

She sat bolt upright. "'Junior' here is my _fiancée_, Buster, so you'll get the hell out of here if you know what's good for you!" Anna yelled, but the lifeguard had already split.

He didn't know what possessed him to do it, but at that moment Yoh threw his arms wide and wrapped Anna in a tight hug. He braced himself to receive the same treatment the lifeguard had moments ago, but when her hand finally descended upon him, it was only to return his hug. Gradually Yoh felt the warmth return to Anna's skin, along with something else that seemed to radiate from her very pores, something as indescribable as it was certain to exist, something that quickened his pulse and enthralled him…

"Thanks," Anna whispered into Yoh's shoulder, "you know, for saving my life and all." And then he received a gift even rarer than her thanks, a gift as blinding white and pure as the afternoon sun but a hundred times as radiant: her smile.

"I…I had to do it anyway," Yoh replied, just as softly, and blushing just as delicately as Anna was. "I can't imagine my life…living without you right beside me anyway."

"Damn right, Asakura. If you let me die, my ghost will _never _let you hear the end of it." The words were less than kind but she was still grinning shamelessly at Yoh.

"Ah…Even in death, some things never change, huh?"

Rather than retaliating for this cheap shot, Anna merely drew slightly closer. "But one thing would definitely change in death. I couldn't give you one of these," she said.

Anna's hand found the crook of Yoh's neck and pulled his lips to hers. He gave a start, but then relaxed, feeling a gentle tongue asking for permission to pass between his lips, permission which he didn't deny. Anna's fingers shook droplets of water from his matted black hair; Yoh rubbed away the last few droplets on her luxurious back. He felt as though he were about to drown again, but this time in an ocean of emotion, of passion, of love…

"Yoh?" Anna asked once their lips had finally parted.

"Yes?"

She pointed to his swim trunks; he didn't have to look down to understand what her next joke was about.

"Is that a tube of sunscreen in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?"


	4. An Unquenchable Thirst

Summary: Yoh just knows he's not going to have a good day when a suspicious piece of mail causes Anna to fly off the handle…and all that before breakfast too! But he doesn't know the half of it…Will something, _anything, _happen to make the day any better?

Written: From about 7 to 11 pm on 8/3/07.

Rating: **T** for **moderate romantic themes** and **mild language**.

Notes: _Tanto_ and _katana_ are Japanese bladed weapons, the former roughly equivalent to a dagger; the latter, a longsword.

An Unquenchable Thirst

_Kiss #3_

Yoh looked groggily at the image behind the spattered mirror and blinked hard. He absentmindedly tugged at a cowlick in his jet-black hair with one hand while halfheartedly brushing his teeth with the other. It was far too early to be awake, in his opinion, but training waits for no man…_or woman,_ he thought, wincing at the fury Anna would unleash upon him if he rolled out of bed one minute too late. _The morning has been altogether too pleasant_, he thought uneasily. _Maybe she caught laryngitis--_

"Yoh Asakura, WHAT is the meaning of this?!" screamed a furious voice, just as its source kicked the bathroom door open with an even more jarring noise. Yoh spat a mouthful of frothy toothpaste onto the mirror in shock, hiding his stunned expression from his view.

_I've only been awake five minutes. What did I do this time?_ Yoh wanted to reply, but instead wiped the toothpaste off the mirror with as much composure as he could gather. "Good morning," he said thickly, but without irony, favoring Anna's quivering red face with an innocent, toothpaste-filled grin. "What's the meaning of what?" he asked, and began sloshing some water around in his mouth.

"This!" she bellowed, thrusting an envelope as red as her livid face at Yoh as though it were a _tanto_. He plucked it from between her fingers and squinted at it. There was no return address, and the deep crimson dye was beginning to bleed from the paper, running down his wet fingertips like blood. He hastily wiped his hands on a towel and he felt Anna's eyes boring into his back before he turned around and answered, as casually as he could manage, "I don't know, Anna. I've never received a red envelope before."

"It's a love letter, isn't it?" she demanded, making an affronted, disgusted face. "Go ahead and fool around with your red-envelope lover, but don't expect me to keep quiet--"

But Yoh had torn the envelope over and fished out its contents. He unfolded the letter. A rectangle of printed paper slid out, but Yoh caught it and stuffed it into his pocket, then turned his attention to the cramped yet familiar writing of the letter:

_My dear grandson,_

_I hope this letter finds the future Shaman King and Queen well! Your grandmother and I regret that we haven't written in awhile, but we rest assured your training proceeds smoothly._

_Yoh, you may not know this, but it is nearly five years ago to the day that we decided that Anna should wed you. I know she can be difficult sometimes, but you will need to accept your grandparents' intuition that she loves you, no matter how little she may show it. She has stood by your side through your trials and tribulations, worrying for your well-being and tending to you, and that speaks of a powerful love, no matter how begrudging she may seem when she does it._

_I would like you to use the enclosed money to procure a token of your affection for your fiancé to celebrate five years of betrothal. I know you may feel reluctant to spend so much on somebody who seems to treat you so badly, but her concern for you is pure, even if it is suffused with discourteousness._

_Remember always that we love you, but just as importantly, so does Anna. We wish you both happiness and success._

_Write back soon,_

_Yohmei Asakura_

Though he had read it all as quickly as he possibly could, he had barely finished reading the last line before Anna's impatience smacked him full on the right cheek. "Oh, I get it! You'd rather read your steamy love letter than confess to me--"

Yoh rubbed his swelling cheek tenderly and folded the letter down so that only the closing was visible. "Anna…This letter is from my grandparents."

She squinted at the words intensely, as though she were willing them to change to something more incriminating. "What kind of letter from grandparents comes in a dark red envelope…" she asked incredulously. Shaking her head, she stormed out, muttering as she did, "It's just stupid…it must run in the family…"

Yoh, still stinging from both the intensity and physical pain of her tirade, gave a deep sigh and reread the letter, more carefully this time.

_'Use the enclosed money to procure a token of your affection…'_ _My grandpa sure has one hell of a thesaurus, that's for sure…The enclosed money? I don't see any--_Yoh retrieved the slip of paper he had crammed into his pocket when he feared Anna's wrath, and gave a little hiccupping gasp.

"Dear God," he whispered in awe, turning the bill over in his hands as though expecting it to speak to him. "Ten thousand yen…this is more money than I've ever owned…" He folded it carefully and secured it deep in his pocket. His mind was racing as he prepared to leave, strapping on weights onto his wrists and ankles. Closing the front door behind him, he proceeded to the street, breaking into an energetic jog, his sprightly footfalls giving his thoughts rhythm. _Ten thousand yen can buy a lot of stuff…But what gift would suit Anna? And what would be appropriate for a five-year anniversary of bethrowal--betrathing…that word Grandpa used? _Unconsciously he reached into his pocket, the spelling of the word eating away at the back of his mind along with the matter of what to buy Anna, but his hand found only a carefully folded piece of currency.

_It's gone! Oh no, I must have left it on the sink…I hope Anna misses it, or throws it away, or shreds it…A paper shredder! No wait, that's a horrible gift idea. Man, I've never done this before…I've never even had to buy gifts for anyone before, Manta's like my only friend and I don't even know when his birthday is…_A pang of guilt nipped at Yoh in his chest when he realized this, but he resolved to think about that later and pressed on, both with his feet against the sidewalk and with his mind as well.

_What do people usually give for occasions like this?_ he wondered helplessly as his body kept rushing forward. _It's times like these I wish I'd paid more attention to Anna's soap operas…Maybe I should get her a couple of seasons of _Specific Hospital _or _All My Offspring_…but she's probably seen them all anyway…This gift giving thing sure is tiring,_ he mused as he dabbed at the sweat on his forehead with his shirt. _I should have a drink of water._

Yoh's left hand groped around his hip, feeling for the bottle of water he usually carried on his belt. Wondering why he couldn't quite grasp it, he looked down. "You're kidding me…Dammit, I must've forgotten about it when I was in such a rush to leave this morning…along with breakfast…"

As if in response to his commentary, his stomach gave a loud, low rumble. _Ah well, I'm sure I'll come across a water fountain somewhere. Have a water fountain installed! Wait, that's a retarded idea, Anna wasn't kidding about me being stupid…_His running pace slowed gradually, almost imperceptibly, but his mind worked harder to compensate. _This shouldn't be hard, I mean we live together, and she's kinda cold sometimes, but she can be caring when she wants to…_

Yoh smiled when he thought this, despite the fact that his mouth was now dry and he was no closer to deciding what to spend his money on. He also didn't notice that his energetic jog had slowed to a somewhat brisk walk. _Maybe I should surprise her and, like, bake a cake or something and hide the money in the middle. God damn, that's a horrible idea. What is this, a five-year anniversary or a five-year-old's birthday party? 'Happy anniversary, baby, now put on this blindfold and pin the tail on the _kitsune_!' Ugh. I bet Horohoro never has to worry about crap like this…_

He was deep in thought, oblivious to the warning signs his body was giving him. His body began slumping forwards, his forward progress now a slow waddle, and despite the merciless morning sun's heat, his sweating had stopped. Perhaps due to the heat, he thought of…_An ice sculpture! Wait, come on, where the hell am I gonna get one of those? 'Aisle six, next to Jimmy Hoffa's body and the continent of Atlantis'?! Gah, why can't I think of anything good? Maybe I'm too thirsty,_ he finally realized. _I'll just…I'll stop at that mall for a few minutes for some water. Anna will understand…No she won't, but I don't want to die,_ he tried to rationalize to himself.

_The mall's just another block this way,_ Yoh encouraged himself, suddenly realizing how weak with thirst he had become. His knees buckled suddenly, and he braced himself against a wall before sidling on. The immaculately cleaned sliding doors glided open noiselessly as he approached, and he would not have recognized the sunken eyes, limp arms, and stumbling feet of his own reflection, even if he were able to see clearly.

Instead of refreshing him, the suddenly cool air of the mall had a disorienting effect. His mind narrowed its activity further and seemed disembodied, as though his muddled, sporadic thoughts were beaming from above into the awkwardly shuffling scarecrow below. _Need…something to drink_, came a thought just then, and he licked his lips as though about to speak, but there was no moisture on his tongue. "McDougal's," he wheezed to himself, "just around the corner…but…"

Feeling consciousness weaving in and out of him, he made it around the corner and saw the sign he was looking for. He wobbled dangerously now, like a top about to skid out on its side, but made his way inside the establishment. He briefly looked over the offerings for sale, wondering what would be best, and pointed with an unsteady, pale finger. Sliding the ten-thousand-yen bill across the counter, he spoke, his voice an arid, hoarse whistle, "I'll take…one of those…small…no ice…hurry please…about to dehydrate…"

Yoh's head lurched forward. He heard the impact of his orange headphones slamming into the tiled floor. He bent over instinctively to retrieve them, and then blackness enveloped him as his memory dried up and consciousness slipped away from him…

---------------------------

Yoh's eyes felt sticky, but he could see, somewhat blurred, the ceiling, painted a soothing cerulean. His right arm was propped above the sheet that covered everything below his chest, and two needles were poked into his skin just below his bicep. He blinked hard, staring at the needles with a kind of enthralled horror as they slowly dripped a clear liquid into his bloodstream, then at the very edge of his field of vision, saw a sudden swash of subdued yellow…

"Good," an unemotional voice spoke from that direction, "you're alive." Yoh looked over and saw Anna, her somewhat gaunt but otherwise impassive face peeking at him from above a smeary newspaper.

"Anna!" He wanted to scream, but in his recuperating state could only manage a loud whisper.

She put the newspaper down and stepped forward, walking around the intravenous drip stand, past the foot of his bed, to his left side, silently. "The paramedic said this is the most severe case of dehydration he's seen in years, so I guess I'll go easy on you for this one," she said, the ice in her voice beginning to melt. "Still, Yoh…I don't quite understand why you went for a twenty-five-mile run without at least a little water first. Not the sharpest _katana_ on the weapons rack, are you?"

Yoh gave a resigned smile, knowing that explaining the circumstances of his forgetfulness wouldn't help…

"Then again…I don't blame you for being a little scatterbrained yesterday--"

"Yesterday?" he broke in, unaware that Anna was just about to come the closest she ever came to an apology. "How long have I been here?"

"Almost a full twenty-four hours. I came as soon as the receptionist gave me the call last afternoon."

Yoh didn't quite know what to say to that, but she waved off his expression. "It wasn't as bad as it sounds." She pointed to the TV mounted to the ceiling, which was now angled to where Anna had been sitting. "You didn't cause me to miss much. Anyway," she continued brusquely, "as I was saying, I'm not surprised you were a little stupider than usual yesterday, in light of this."

She pushed a folded sheet of paper onto Yoh's chest; he craned his neck slightly to read its cramped writing, spotted with water where the bathroom floor it had dropped onto was wet.

"You, er," Yoh stammered, not sure why Anna was showing him his own letter from his grandparents, "so you read that, huh?"

"I didn't mean to," she shot back defensively, suddenly embarrassed. "You dropped it face-up, and I couldn't help seeing the…the important parts…"

"Anna," Yoh said gently, "you read it all, and I don't mind."

"I, well…" she floundered before she sighed lightly. "He…he doesn't miss much, does he, your grandpa? Sharp as a tack," Anna observed, and she knew that she wasn't referring only to his remembering their five-year anniversary, but also the parts about Anna's feelings for Yoh…

"Yeah. He's very perceptive. Kinda rough and short-tempered at times, but really caring and smart. He reminds me a little of yo--somebody I know," said Yoh, correcting himself at the last moment.

But Anna, who was after all smart as Yoh had said, wasn't fooled for a second. She smiled despite herself and leaned in closer to him, combing his disheveled black hair with her slim fingers tenderly. "I take it back. Your grandpa's a smart guy. After all, if it weren't for him, you might've ended up in much worse shape after yesterday."

Yoh looked into Anna's eyes blankly. "Huh?"

"Well, you know. If he hadn't given you that money, you wouldn't have been able to buy a drink at the mall, and you might've…" She hesitated for a second, as though it were too devastating to even speak of, but finally finished, "might've died."

He understood, but at the same time became more confused than ever. "I…I didn't buy a drink, Anna."

"But the paramedic said your last words…sounded like you were trying to order something to drink…what was it, 'small,' 'no ice'?"

"Anna," Yoh replied, still in his weak, recovering voice, "Grandpa gave me that money to buy you a gift. And I wouldn't have spent a single yen of it on myself, no matter what…" He slid his left hand into his pocket nervously, uncertain if he really had managed to get what he had wanted, but he sighed in relief when his fingers withdrew a small velveteen box.

"…So, with my last few moments of consciousness," he finished, pulling the box out from under the sheet and placing it on his chest next to the letter, "I got you this. I hope the guy got it right."

He opened the box and delicately pulled out the glinting object inside. Anna appeared thunderstruck and stood there motionless, saying nothing, merely staring at the delicately filigreed golden band Yoh was slowly rotating with his fingertips.

"I told him, 'Small,'" he began to explain, reaching out and entwining the fingers of his left hand with hers, "because I remembered how delicate and slender your fingers were that one time you let me hold your hand…"

Yoh felt Anna's hand shiver slightly within his, and he saw her swallow hard, as though straining to hold something back…

"And 'no ice,' because ten thousand yen is a lot of money, but not enough to get any diamonds in this ring. At least none," he finished, "worthy of gracing your hand."

Then, not caring that he was stretching the tubes of his IV dangerously, he reached out with his other hand to slide the ring onto Anna's quivering finger.

"H-happy fifth anniversary, Anna," Yoh stammered.

And she, feeling the waves of emotion finally cresting over her formidable barrier, broke down, tears silently gliding down her cheeks. Yoh did his best to comfort her from his confinement on the bed, but found to his surprise that he too was crying. They smiled, teary-eyed, stupidly happy, at each other for a few moments before Anna crouched before Yoh's chest, throwing her arms upon his shoulders. She nestled her face next to his neck, and Yoh felt hot tears leak onto his collarbone, mixed with his--

A loud throat clearing came from behind them. "Ahem! Master Asakura should not physically exert himself after such a severe bout of dehydration." Anna slowly took a single step back from Yoh's bed and glared at the doctor as though he had just made a cell phone call during a classical music concert.

"Nonetheless," the doctor continued, looking at the clipboard in his hands, "it seems he has recovered well enough to have some fluids. Can I get you anything?"

Yoh nodded. "Yes, please. I'll have a glass of water. Small, no ice."

Anna looked at Yoh and, after a split second of silence, both erupted into raucous laughter. The doctor, looking completely baffled, backed out of the room slowly.

Once the laughter had died down, Yoh spoke again, his voice slightly stronger. "Anna, I know I screw up sometimes, and I'm sorry for that."

"You did okay this time, Yoh," she replied, turning her ring finger over in the light. "Look at it. Even when you're about to pass out, you picked out this one…It's beautiful."

Yoh blushed, looking at her normally austere face that was now at once vulnerable and tender, but mostly expressed something else, something that Yoh felt for her too… "Not as beautiful as you."

Anna leaned over again, brushed his chin with her fingertips, and planted a kiss on his lips, the lips that had not long ago hungered for water, but now hungered for the unique brand of love only she could provide him…An unquenchable thirst of a different kind now surged up his spinal cord, his tongue wrestling hers now for dominance, seeing who loved the other more…

Anna leapt back as she heard footsteps enter the room. "Master Yoh? Here's your water, like you requested," the nurse said hesitantly, handing the water to Yoh delicately as though afraid he would lunge at her. "The doctor would like to run a few psychological tests on you before you're discharged, however…"


	5. The Best Gift

Summary: Anna thinks Yoh's slacking with his training when she discovers him in a disused storage room early one day. But why's he there anyway? And who knows what'll happen when she closes the door behind her?

Written: In about 5 hours during the night of 8/4/07.

Rating: **T** for **innuendo**, **crude humor **and **coarse language**.

Notes: This story was very challenging to write, because I wanted to try something different. You will notice that this story is ENTIRELY dialogue with NO dialogue tags, descriptive paragraphs, etc…only spoken words. This format that has its own unique advantages…and disadvantages. It also turned out more humorous than I had expected, but I'm not sure if that's a good thing. _Please_ give me your opinion on this; if it proves popular and worth the extra effort, I may do it again in the future. On with the story…

The Best Gift

_Kiss #4_

"Somewhere in this pile of junk, it has to be--"

"YOH! There you are! Either that was the fastest twenty-five-mile run you've ever done in your life, or you're holding out on me. You wouldn't do _that_, would you?"

"NOOO! Anna, don't let that door close--"

_Slam!_

"I'll open it again once you fess up, slacker. How many more miles do you owe me? Judging from the time, I'd say six? Let's make it ten…no, twelve, to be safe."

"Anna--you kicked the doorstop--and the door's closed now--"

"Brilliant, Holmes. Such clever deduction. But that's not what I want from you right now. No shirking on my watch."

"But the door…if it's closed and we're both in here and no one else is home--"

"You pervert!"

"Owww!!"

"And you'll get another slap if you're not out the door jogging in the next five seconds. We understand each other?"

"N-no, Anna, you don't get it…The door…if it's closed and we're both in here, then…"

"Oh! Now that you mention it, it _is_ getting pretty stuffy in here. Maybe I should…ugh…erm, maybe it goes this way…Yoh, come here and jiggle this for me…"

"It's no use, Anna. That's what I was trying to tell you."

"You're kidding me…For the love of Buddha, I can't believe this. What kind of former inn has rooms that lock people _in_?"

"Probably the thousand-yen-a-month kind."

"Argh…if this is some kind of trick so you can avoid running those miles you owe me, you've got another think coming!"

"Search me. I left the door open halfway with a doorstop. Wasn't trying to hide from you or anything."

"Don't give me that tone. And what the hell were you looking for up here anyway? You must have wanted it really bad to have cut out on your jogging for it."

"I, uh…This!"

"Yes, Yoh. I fully believe that. You came up here searching for a stained T-shirt…Ugh, it's just too hot to chew you out in here!"

"Well, maybe you should take off your to--OWWW!"

"The only reason I didn't slap you harder, is because I figured maybe you're delirious with heatstroke. Now then, how do you plan on getting us out of here?"

"_Me?!_ I didn't kick the doorstop away and slam the door closed!"

"And if you had just run your full twenty-five miles this morning, you wouldn't have had time to come up here in the first place! And I never would've needed to come up here searching for you. _Ipso facto_, it's your fault."

"_Ipso facto_…sounds like an exotic Greek island."

"_Yoh Asakura_…sounds like an idiot. And a bad debater."

"Maybe I am. But I do know I woke up almost two hours before dawn to make time for this today."

"You expect me to buy that line?"

"Anna, think about it. Breakfast was all ready and, I'm guessing, stone cold by the time you got to it, right? And I was long gone by then."

"W-well…okay, maybe you're telling the truth for once. But you know what that doesn't change?"

"What's that?"

"Oh…I don't know, maybe…uh, the little fact that I'M STUCK IN A SWELTERING STORAGE ROOM WITH YOU!"

"Anna, you wound me. You don't enjoy spending time with me?"

"You're kidding, right? _Please_ tell me that was sarcasm."

"I enjoy spending time with _you_!"

"Yoh-dono!"

"Huh? Since when do you call me tha--Amidamaru! Thank God…"

"I thought I heard a commotion. I don't believe I've ever seen this particular room…"

"Amidamaru, I need you to head downstairs, you'll find my backpack on the table…Could you bring that up to me, please?"

"…Dumbass."

"I…I am afraid Anna-san is correct, though her phrasing may be less than appropriate…Yoh-dono, you--and your belongings--exist on a different material plane from mine. I cannot bring you anything of yours."

"Oh…that's right. Well, thanks anyway, Amidamaru."

"I shall try my best to assist you, Yoh-dono. I will not tarry when I return."

"Classic. Sometimes I just need a reminder of the genius I'm going to marry someday."

"Cut me a little slack, Anna, it seemed like a good idea at the time!"

"Filling blimps with hydrogen seemed like a good idea at the time. Speaking of time, looks like thanks to you, we're going to have lots of it…so getting back to my original question, what were you looking for up here?"

"J…just a couple of tools, that's all."

"Tools?! You mean like this hammer that's completely rusted through? Or maybe the hacksaw that's probably more dangerous for the user than it is for the wood?"

"I…well, all right, fine. I…used to keep a…journal and I hid it up here a few months ago."

"Mff…heh...Hahahaha! Yoh! You have a _diary_?!"

"A journal! There's a big difference!"

"Yeah, I'll say. I bet the cover on your book of personal secrets and innermost thoughts has a manly picture on it, thus transforming it from a girl's diary to a guy's _journal_. Vastly different."

"See…this is why I decided to hide it…"

"Oh, this is just gold. Now I've got to find it before you do."

"No! Ugh…"

"Hmm…I haven't seen you this agitated in awhile. You must be keeping some juicy secrets in there."

"Nothing like that…Ouch! What the hell is this…"

"Geez, there are a lot of books in here…_A Compendium of Japanese Classics_, _Let's Cook with Okra!, Lady Murasaki's Lover…_That last one must be yours, Yoh…"

"Oh, give me a break. All the books are in your part of the pile? Dammit…"

"…_50 Ways to Suicide with Honor…_Aha, what's this?"

"Crap! Dah I mean, that's just a…sticker album, you should just throw it away."

"Oooooh! Now let's see… _'I felt kinda bad for denying that I knew the short kid I met in the graveyard yesterday, Manta, in class today. But it's weird for me, being sort of an outcast, I've never really had friends before…'_"

"Argh! Give it! Give it back!"

"Sheesh, relax. This is really compelling reading, even if your spelling is atrocious. The _sensitive_ side of Yoh! Your _untold story_! This is better than any soap opera I've ever seen…Ahem, '_Today Ice Queen Anna added 10 miles to my run because I left the edge of the sink wet. I made a bet with Amidamaru that she was dropped as a baby, that's why she's such a bitch now. He thinks she was deprived of attention as a child. I wonder when I'll find out, I really want to know, it might explain why she whips me so bad…'_"

"YEOW!!!"

"For your information, it's because you're such a screw-up!"

"I…You're right, I'm sorry, Anna…"

"You better hope for your sake that you wrote at least something good about me in here! Hmm… '_Today while taking a shower I saw myself in the mirror and noticed I had started growing my first underarm hai--' _Ewwwww! Yoh! That's sick! I don't wanna know about that!"

"Er…well, you said it yourself, my 'personal secrets' are all in there. Besides, I warned you to give it back! And if you thought that part was bad, you should probably stop before you get any further."

"That was pretty gross, but maybe there are more juicy parts to make up for that in here… Ah! _'I was lying in bed last night and unable to sleep, my mind wandered, and I thought of Anna, and I couldn't stop thinking of her. I really don't understand how someone so nasty can have such a great face and body. I thought of things I'd never before contemplated, and I felt very guilty but I couldn't help myself, and I made sure everyone was in bed and I thought of her, and for the first time I--' _OH MY GOD! That is possibly the most disturbing thing I've ever read!"

"Yowch!!! I guess I deserved that one…I'm sorry, Anna! I couldn't help it, you know, I am at that age when…I go through … changes … and I never thought you would ever read that…not that it makes it better, but…"

"After all that sick crap, this damn journal owes me some good stuff. This looks promising… '_Anna gave me the day off from training today, for my 15__th__ birthday. It's kind of hard to believe I've been living with the Ice Mistress--' _Ooh, I'm a _mistress_ now, nice to see a little originality on your part… '_…for two years now, although it felt like about 50. Anyway, Manta gave me a sweet Monte Blanco pen, it looks really cool, but I'm not used to writing with it, hope I can read this later! Anna's gift to me was a promise not to slap me all day, which doesn't sound so great unless you realize how often and hard she slaps. But the best gift--' _The best gift wasn't my promise not to slap you all day? Why don't I just pay you back for the ones I missed back then?"

"Anna, just keep reading that part…I think it'll explain something."

"Have it your way… _'But the best gift arrived from my grandpa in the mail. It was a short note, attached to a framed portrait of Anna. The note said, 'If you can do well enough to make her smile, that is a reward--and gift--in itself.' I looked at the picture more closely, I turned it over, removed it from the frame, convinced this was another one of my grandpa's lessons, that there was money or something hidden in there--' _Yoh, this isn't exactly helping your case… _'but then I realized the photo was better than money, or anything else for that matter. Anna was stunning in the picture, her golden hair like a halo around her breathtaking face, with inviting, wide eyes and a smile, something I'd never before seen her do.' _Oh, Yoh…that's actually kind of sweet, you know…"

"It was a stupid thing to write. It's all stupid. Maybe you should stop--"

"No, this is a good opportunity for me to see what you really think about me. It's kind of a rush… _'I stared at the little square of color for a long time, wondering why I had never seen Anna look at me the same way she had at the camera the instant the photo was taken. I hate the Ice Queen, and the person in the picture was her, but at the same time was someone completely different…somebody I knew I loved, or at least could love, could see myself marrying someday. And I thought for a long time, what can I possibly do to bring out that smile from her pouting lips, melt the ice in her glorious eyes? I don't know, but I hope someday I figure it out, and she will smile at me, maybe even kiss me…'_"

"Anna, please, I…I must have written all that at three in the morning or something, I was delirious, don't take it seriously--"

"No, Yoh. This…I don't know why you kept those thoughts secret. It's a relief that I'm not wasting my love on someone who hated me."

"Your…love?"

"Of course, stupid. I mean I might not get all drippy like they do in the soap operas, but, c'mon, do you really think I'd let someone annoy me so much sometimes if I didn't love them?"

"I…"

"Yoh, I've been right behind you when you were on the brink of death. And just because it _looks_ like I'm always unaffected doesn't mean that I don't cry into my pillow with worry when no one's around to watch. I'm not comfortable wearing my emotions on my sleeve, that's just the way I am. But I didn't know that you thought of my smile so highly…"

"Th-there it is…and Anna, it's just like I wrote in my journal…so perfect, so beautiful…What did I do to earn it?"

"Well, unlike this damn door, you finally opened up to me."

"I…I love that smile…and I love…what are you--mmmmm…"

"…mmmm…"

_Creak._

"Ahhhhh!"

"…mmm…oh, Anna--_MANTA?!_"

"I…uhm…Amidamaru led me here, I found the key…but it looks like the two of you are…busy at the moment, maybe I should come back tomorrow…"

_Slam!_

"No! Manta, come…mmmm…never mind…"

"…mmm…"


	6. Under My Umbrella

Summary: Yoh's inattentiveness results in the ruination of one of Anna's most treasured possessions. On the rainiest, most insipid morning he's seen in years, will inspiration finally strike him and atone for his error?

Written: In about 4 hours on 8/5 and 8/6/07.

Rating: **T** for **romantic themes**.

Notes: The epigraph for this story is quoted from the song "Umbrella" by Rihanna featuring Jay-Z. The music and lyrics are not my property and were used without permission. On another note, of all the stories here so far, this one was the most fun to write. I'm not sure why, really. Probably just because I was able to quote a lame song like "Umbrella" and work it into a fairly decent story…Anyway, enjoy!

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"_Took an oath, I'm a-stick it out to the end. Now that it's raining more than ever, know that we'll still have each other. You can stand…"_

Under My Umbrella

_Kiss #5_

The sizzle of frying cooking oil, along with the dull background noise of pouring rain, echoed through the kitchen where Yoh stood before the stove, paying only vague attention to the eggs he was noncommittally poking with a spatula. He made breakfast every morning, a mundane routine that gave him plenty of time to think, even if he was usually so drowsy that most of his thoughts involved the comfort and warmth of his bed, and the sleep he could be having…

A drop of hot cooking oil landed on his arm with a sizzle, clearing his mind of any fantasies of returning to bed. "Yowch!"

A brisk voice from behind him spoke. "Sheesh, Yoh, I haven't even slapped you yet. A little jumpy today, are we?"

"Ah--good morning, Anna."

"Same to you," she replied in a less than amiable tone. "I hope you changed the oil after you cooked the bacon, you know I can't stand eggs with a meaty off-taste."

Yoh gulped, but recovered quickly, scooping the eggs onto a plate. "No, but it's no problem…I'll eat these I just cooked, and I'll make you a fresh batch."

"I knew it! You just can't do anything right, can you?!"

"No, Anna," he replied with a sigh, "I think we've both established a long time ago that I'm a screw-up."

"Just a 'screw-up'? Let me show you something, mister, and we'll see if 'screw-up' even begins to describe what you did yesterday…" she menaced as she stalked out of the room.

"I wonder what I did this time," he muttered, cracking eggshells against the side of his frying pan. "She seems grumpier than usual, and that's really saying something…"

Behind him, Anna slammed a half-full laundry basket onto the kitchen table. He gave a start and nearly dropped his spatula, but took a quick breath and turned around.

"Yoh," Anna said through clenched teeth in a nearly hysterical tone of forced pleasantness, "I don't recall ever buying pink socks. Or pink skirts. Or pink tops. Or, for that matter, pink panties." Despite the maelstrom he knew he was about to enter, Yoh felt _himself_ pink slightly at Anna's mention of her undergarments… "So perhaps you can explain to me why every formerly white article of clothing in this load of laundry, now looks like something you'd find in a department store bargain bin the week after Valentine's Day?"

"I…er…" _Uh-oh,_ he thought as comprehension began to dawn upon him. There had been something red on top of the laundry yesterday, but he had forgotten about Anna's special instructions…

"It doesn't take Martha Stewart to figure out," Anna continued as though Yoh hadn't even tried to formulate an answer, "that maybe a red article of clothing somehow made it into the washing machine. Call me crazy, but I think I might have given you a something red to wash yesterday…" She made an exaggerated gesture around her forehead. "Along with some special instructions. Remember? Something along the lines of, 'Yoh, my headscarf needs to be hand washed in cold water with a mild soap.' Ring any bells?"

"Um…"

"Look at it!" she burst out, tugging out her headscarf from beneath a few pairs of stained socks. "You ruined it! I can't be seen wearing this." She tied it behind her head hastily, the folds of cloth sweeping down her back violently, an extension of Anna's anger.

Yoh looked Anna over, her trademark vibrant red bandana-like fashion accessory now faded to a delicate pink. It definitely brought out the smoothness of her skin, and the tenderness she so rarely displayed… "Actually, Anna," he said truthfully, "I think it suits you. It's cute!"

"Well, forget it. I don't do pink. And I certainly don't do cute." She doffed the headscarf, balled it up, and flung it in Yoh's direction.

He caught it, but didn't quite know what to say, so he tried his best: "I…I'm really sorry, Anna. Maybe I can cut back a little on food or something, and buy you a replacement?"

Anna put a hand on her own chest, picking up one of the strands of beads on her chest. "A replacement? When your grandmother gave me these beads years ago," she explained, her voice now oozing with a restrained, icy fury that sent chills up Yoh's spine, "they were wrapped in a silky red cloth. You're holding it now."

Yoh stared at Anna's back wordlessly as she stormed out of the room silently, leaving waves of anguish behind her.

"Anna, wait! I…I'm sorry, I…" But Yoh knew it was no use. Yoh put the pink cloth on the kitchen table and left it there for a second, but couldn't bear to leave it there, and folded it until it fit into his pocket. He felt an indescribable sense of unease, guilt and frustration as he hurriedly finished cooking, feeling no appetite, and left the kitchen dazed and afraid, torrents of rain still pounding the roof. Yoh thought dimly that it might be a good idea to take his umbrella with him for his morning run, and searched his room halfheartedly for it. He saw its majestic oak handle poking out from under his nightstand and retrieved it, kicking up layers of dust as he did so.

Suddenly feeling as though the house was stifling him, Yoh made his way outside and popped his umbrella open. Its canopy was truly gargantuan in size, nearly five feet in diameter, and he angled it carefully above his head to keep himself dry.

Gloom surrounded him as he jogged from the countryside into town. Walls of grey poured from the heavens, making usually sunny fields and clear streams drab and murky. The sun could not penetrate the thick, ominous clouds that choked the sky; all was bleak, and this seemed to complement Yoh's current mood uncannily.

Not often did Yoh waver from his usual insouciant attitude, but unlike the raindrops upon his umbrella, he could not shake off his own guilt and despondence. However one object in the muddled and depressing scene shone through with vermillion intensity, and it was in Yoh's hand. The pangs of guilt churning in the pit of his stomach intensified when he looked at it, as he noticed its color was almost exactly identical to the headgear Anna always seemed to be sporting. As it had been Anna's gift from Yoh's grandmother, so had the umbrella once been his grandfather's…

His feet had become numb and wrinkled from the cold rain, and although his heart raced with the exertion of running, he felt chilled to the very bones. The only warmth he felt came from his pocket, where he had stashed Anna's now pink headscarf, but it was a corrupted warmth, a humiliated warmth like the burning of a scarlet letter on his chest.

He realized gradually that, though he had unconsciously been picking up speed as though trying to run away from something, there was no escaping what he had to do. Once he decided to take action, he felt a kind of healthy fever surge through his frozen body, and he knew the usual, happy-go-lucky Yoh was returning to him…

_I hope this works,_ he thought as he slowed his pace, squinting through the rain to orient himself. _There's the 8-Twelve convenience store, I think…so that should be the copy shop next to it, and then…Yes, there it is! The tailor!_

"I'm not even sure what I'm going to do yet, but I'm sure it'll all work out somehow," he whispered to himself with a sly grin. He collapsed the crimson umbrella closed and shook it as dry as he could before walking into the tailor's shop…

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Drenched, cold, and sputtering, like a sailor in the flotsam of a shipwreck, Yoh called out through the downpour, "Anna, I'm home!" He carried the umbrella in his left hand and a white parcel in his right, both objects hidden behind his back. He received no acknowledgment, and called again, "Anna, could you please bring me a towel? I don't want to drip all over the floor."

At that, he heard movement from inside. A minute later, the front door swung open and a white towel attacked his face. Yoh did his best to sop up the water from his dripping hair and legs with one hand while holding his belongings in the other. Anna merely glared at him as he did so, but he knew things could have been worse: At least she wasn't denying his existence.

Yoh slung the damp towel over his shoulder, with Anna continuing to glare at him, and he felt apprehensive, his soaked shirt clinging to his chest and back like a coiled snake, constricting him. Finally Anna spoke, in a tone that was neither angry nor resentful, but at the same time overwhelmingly glacial. "Yoh, you're the only person in the world who could manage to get so drenched while holding an umbrella the size of a circus tent."

"Anna, I know I messed up," he said, for now that Anna had broken the silence, words had rushed into his mind and began spilling out his lips. "I know nothing can replace the keepsake I ruined, and what it means to you…"

Her face remained stoic but her arms uncrossed from her chest, perhaps subconsciously.

"…So I hope you can accept this as a gesture of my sincere apology," he finished, extending his arm and presenting Anna with the white parcel.

She accepted it, perhaps a little more roughly than was necessary, and nodded curtly. "You're right, Yoh. My headscarf was very precious to me, but I guess I'll need a replacement. Thanks. Now you better take a shower. You run tomorrow whether you're sick or not." She was about to turn away when she suddenly realized, "Wait a second. I didn't give you any money…How did you get this?"

"Aha, well…I went to the tailor in town," he began. "I showed him this," and Yoh pulled out the carefully folded pink cloth from his pocket, "and said I wanted another one made, just like it, but in red."

Anna took up the parcel in earnest now, began digging her fingernails into the wrapping, wanting to see the replacement headscarf… "And he did it for free?"

"Uhh…I told him what it was for, and he said something like, 'Hey, I can't turn away a young man in love,' and he started showing me all these cloth samples to see what color I wanted. But then I thought, I need to make something with real sentimental value, not just something with no history or meaning to it…So I made up my mind on which cloth to use--"

"This feels familiar…smooth, resilient, thin…In fact it almost feels like the cloth from your--But you didn't, you couldn't have, your grandfather gave it to you--but then it would explain why you're soaked…"

And to finish his tale, Yoh produced his umbrella now, sweeping it from behind his back. It rustled as its bare metal joints and rods collided with each other, and the whole thing vaguely resembled a robotic hand; even collapsed, and without its canopy, it looked majestic. Anna gaped at it for a few seconds, comprehension registering in her absolutely shocked expression, and then--

The skeletal umbrella clattered to the floor with a metallic swish as Anna charged him with passion, wrapping his moist body in her arms. Yoh felt the chilliness in his body evaporate from the affection that radiated from his fiancé, an aura of warmth that also melted her normally icy demeanor. Yoh plucked the new bandana from its perch around Anna's arm, tied it snugly about her forehead, and smoothed out its wrinkles.

"So, what do you think?" she asked, shifting the knot slightly and favoring Yoh with a pose.

"Beautiful," he said, smiling sheepishly as he felt a new, slightly embarrassed heat invade his cheeks, "and the new headscarf isn't bad either."

"Oh, Yoh…" The long, vibrant ruff of Anna's new headscarf flashed fiercely as her hands drew Yoh's head nearer to meet hers halfway. Her lips found his and grazed them, pressed upon them, gently but passionately, the same way her hands were warming up the back of his soaked shirt. He was taken by surprise, but relaxed, leaning into her slightly, feeling the skirt of her new headgear rub against the tops of his hands. Her tongue found his, thanked him for all he had done without speaking a word, and Yoh, ever the gentleman, did not deny the accolade…

Slowly their lips parted, and Yoh peered down to Anna, his gaze gentle yet exuberant. Anna, however, was looking back and forth between the incomplete umbrella and pink headscarf, and he knew what she was thinking…

"Oh, no…"

"What?" she asked defensively, though she sounded playful rather than offended. "It'd be cute!"

"Sorry," he replied with a knowing smile, "I don't do pink. And I certainly don't do cute."

"Not for you, silly! I'll make it…and then, maybe, when it's raining more than ever, you can…you know…you can stand under my umbrella."

Yoh smiled. "I like it, but you forgot one thing."

"What's that?"

"It's my frame, but your headscarf. It's _our_ umbrella. And _we_ can stand under it together, even when there's no end to the storm in sight. And even if we both don't do pink."

It was Anna's turn to smile now, and they looked into each other's eyes, grinning, feeling an aura of warmth, of passion, of heat, even as the rain continued to pour…


	7. Lost

Summary: Yoh realizes that he's dissatisfied with his fiancée, but there's nothing he can do about it until an old acquaintance comes into the picture. What will Yoh do?

Written: The night of 8/7 and the morning of 8/8/07.

Rating: **T** for **strong language** and **mature themes**.

Notes: This is my first try at writing a two-shot where both parts of the story fit into the theme. Also this story contains my first use of the F-word…I thought I'd save it for a special occasion, heh. One of the harder stories for me to write so far; I hope the second part comes out of me easier…but on with Part 1, here, enjoy!

"_So kiss me hard, 'cause this will be the last time that I let you…"_

_--Dashboard Confessional, _The Best Deceptions

Lost

_Kiss #6_

It was barely seven o'clock, but the En Inn lay unusually dark, still and quiet in the dying grasp of twilight. The television was off, as were all of the lights, and weak wisps of feeble sunshine cast long shadows upon everything within. A stifling silence permeated the structure, and not even a floorboard dared creak to disturb it.

Yoh found himself sitting at a table in the darkness, drawn to the kitchen out of habit: Normally he would begin preparing dinner for Anna at this time of the evening, but she had left that morning for a meditative retreat and wouldn't be back until the next afternoon. "With you driving me nuts all the time, I'm long overdue for some time alone," were her last words to him.

He, meanwhile, had no idea what to do with himself with his time alone. Being at Anna's beck and call for so long gave him a nearly inexhaustible supply of energy, one that was now almost begging to be tapped even as he continued to sit, staring idly into the blackness. He considered cooking himself dinner despite his total lack of appetite, just to give himself something to do, and weirdly enough his mind talked him into it. _The stuff in the fridge will spoil, I may as well cook some of it before then…_

His agile fingers washed rice in the dark, feeling each grain against his tough skin, draining the murky water and replacing it anew, until he knew from experience it was clean. He set some frozen meat to thaw in a bowl of warm water, and began mincing vegetables, throwing chunks of carrot, strips of shallot, pieces of potato, into a large pot. Soon the enticing scents of a feast in the making filled the kitchen, as Yoh continued stirring and seasoning in the darkness.

"Not bad, if I do say so myself," Yoh muttered after removing the steaming pot from the range and licking his finger. He was a slacker, but nonetheless took pride in whatever work he did. He even wiped off a shallow bowl, scooped rice and stew upon it, and set it at the table, even though he felt no compulsion to eat whatsoever. The stuffiness of the kitchen addled him, and he departed leisurely, leaving the front door slightly ajar in hopes of cooling off the interior.

Yoh looked up into the early night sky from the middle of the rock garden. There were no stars visible yet, and barely a sliver of moon to illuminate his surroundings, but his night vision was exceptional. He sat on a gently ridged flat rock, propping one of his ankles upon the opposite knee, and felt the crisp air moving upon his upper lip as he breathed slowly and contentedly. In Anna's absence it was unnaturally quiet, and even in the tranquility of the rock garden he felt uneasy, as though she were glaring at him disapprovingly for twiddling his thumbs.

It was with both resentment and longing that he thought of Anna then, the way she made him feel exhausted both in his muscles and in his soul at the end of every day with her merciless training regimen and constant berating. He couldn't imagine he received such brutal treatment from her while they were arranged to be _married; _how much worse would things be if they were just casual acquaintances?

And then, as though it had hitched a ride upon the shooting star he had just seen out of the corner of his eye and drilled itself into his mind, that word resounded within his relaxed mind: _Arranged._ His entire life, it seemed to him, had been arranged, from his shaman roots to his engagement to Anna, and all of it ran contrary to his laid-back nature. In every way he could he rebelled against the life he had been spoon-fed, from the way he let his hair grow into long, unkempt spikes, to the oversized headphones which, even under the faint moonlight, were glowing a vibrant tangerine behind his ears. But it was all meaningless, a feeble, token affectation of derailment, when he knew full well his life was still chugging down the tracks others had laid down for him…

For the first time in his life, Yoh began contemplating what his life would be like without Anna as his fiancée. Certainly she had lit, as she put it all too often, a fire under his ass, and in light of the more and more taxing challenges he seemed to face every week, he was thankful she had. But a relentless coach does not a good wife make; in fact, the very dissociation one needs to be an effective coach has the exact opposite effect in a relationship. Anna was too busy keeping herself emotionally unaffected to be both Yoh's mentor and lover, and although he didn't dare confess it to anyone, he wanted, craved, _needed_ love. Perhaps it stemmed from his parents, who never seemed to be around; maybe it hearkened back to his childhood, outcast by other kids for being able to see spirits, and rarely complimented by his grandparents during his training. He didn't know why for sure, but he knew at least that the need existed within him, and Anna never satisfied it…

Then again, he knew his opinion of Anna had no bearing whatsoever on what would inevitably happen. She was a powerful shaman in her own right--her caliber rivaled and maybe even surpassed his--and their marriage was necessary to continue the bloodline. Unless there existed another female shaman willing to take his hand in marriage, it appeared he was stuck.

The grating of feet on pavement from not far off interrupted the dead silence and roused Yoh from his deep thoughts. He squinted at the opening of the gate, waiting for the newcomer to cross the gap. A figure came into view, but much to his surprise and consternation, it did not walk on by, but instead turned inwards to face the inn. From his perch on the rock he squinted and vaguely saw a shock of pink hair coming slowly closer, moving to and fro as though looking for something, or someone…

It drew nearer, and Yoh saw the silhouetted contours of a young woman now, somehow familiar to him yet different. Her figure reminded him of Anna but her stride was nervous, a world apart from his fiancée's confident swagger. Suddenly their eyes met, and Yoh stood stock-still, unsure of what to do next. _It's so dark, for all I know she thinks she's starting at a pointy-haired rock_…

"Yoh Asakura?" the shaky voice asked, and he gave an involuntary lurch. He gave her a long stare, sizing her up, trying to see if he knew her somehow…

"A--Anna?" he asked lamely, though he knew better.

She drew closer, color beginning to register below her pink hair, and eyes now glimmered at him out of the darkness. He did a double-take and ventured another guess; he remembered now, the only pink-haired girl he knew was…

"Tamao?"

By way of a response, she closed the remaining gap between them, and Yoh could see, even in the near-total darkness, that she was grinning. "Yep," she said, her voice bubbly and anxious. "Kinda surprised you remember me, but it's good. I was afraid you'd sic Amidamaru on me."

He gave a hollow, tense laugh. "Tamao, why did you come here? Did my father send you?" he ventured, remembering that he was her mentor.

"Asakura Mikihisa-sensei? No, though he's taught me a lot. Definitely explains where you get your talent from."

Yoh shifted uncomfortably from his perch on the rock and stood up, unable to hide his nervous tic. Was it just his imagination, or did Tamao just come on to him then? "Er…okay, if not that, then why?"

"Oh, Yoh…just as naïve as I remember you, huh? And I remember quite a bit. In fact," she continued breathlessly, "I haven't stopped thinking of you since the first time we met."

He was slow on the uptake sometimes, but not _that _slow. "So you're here--"

"To see you again, yes. And to tell you that I like you. A lot."

The words were amplified both by the utter silence that followed them, and by the impact they had on Yoh's mind.

"B-b-but Tamao," he sputtered, his brain overwhelmed for the moment, "I…I'm engaged to Anna! I thought you knew that! I…" He hesitated for a split second, but pushed on, thinking it was the right thing to do, "I love her!"

"Do you?"

Those two simple words sparked chaos in his thoughts. He really did have feelings for Anna, but he wasn't sure on what level those feelings existed. Were they merely gratitude for being tough on him when necessary, and nothing more? Or were they really love?

"I…I don't know."

"Well, I've been thinking--eeeeek!"

Yoh saw Tamao's figure take flight suddenly, but her foot snagged something, and she landed hard upon hundreds of jagged pebbles. "Ahhhh…"

"Tamao! Here--grab my arm, I'll clean you up inside…" He lifted her slender figure off the gravel, wringing her arms about his shoulders and neck to support her, and in such a fashion they made their way to the inn. After flicking on the light switch, he blinked, stunned at the brightness for a second, before he realized he had an injury to dress.

"Have a seat, I'll be back down with some bandages in a second," he told her, sprinting upstairs. She nodded and pulled herself a chair.

As Yoh rummaged behind the bathroom mirror for some first aid supplies, he took several deep breaths. _Tamao…really likes me? I mean, I always suspected it, but…wow. What am I supposed to do now?_

The sight of a bleeding palm and knee momentarily cleared his mind of such thoughts. Yoh squatted before Tamao's chair, produced an alcohol swab and whispered, "I hope this doesn't sting too badly."

"Ahhhhh!" With her uninjured hand, she squeezed his arm as hard as she could, and for some reason the physical contact felt good in ways that made Yoh feel both exhilarated and intensely guilty. He thought he had heard a soft noise from outside, but he shrugged and began tightly wrapping Tamao's sterilized knee in gauze. Ripping off a couple lengths of medical tape, he said, "That should take care of it. Now let me see your hand."

"With pleasure," she giggled, holding out an oozing palm. Yoh winced, having received his fair share of such injuries in the past.

"I've got to pick out all the loose bits of gravel first, so the scrapes don't get infected. Hang on a second."

She nodded, and he held her hand loosely in his fingertips, feeling her soft, slim fingers, her smooth palm, and the same guilty rush he had felt earlier returned…

"Yoh…your grip is so gentle, but so firm…"

"Tamao! Alone with Yoh no less! What an…unexpected surprise."

The familiar, cold voice filled the room with the same chilly vibe that shot up Yoh's spine at that moment. The scene froze, in an interesting tableau: a blonde wearing a deadly black top and skirt, holding the front door open with white knuckles; a pink-haired girl sitting on a chair, with a brunette boy holding her hand gently within his…

"Kyoyama Anna-sama! It's not what it looks like!" Tamao pleaded, breaking the tense silence.

"Really?" Anna's eyes narrowed at her and Yoh's linked hands, the tone of her voice more arctic than ever. "To me it looks like my fiancée is tending to your injuries. I may be hot-tempered at times but I do not jump to conclusions. However, your over-defensive reaction, combined with the late hour of, and lack of reason for, your visit to our home, makes me a little suspicious. Oh, and I see Yoh has prepared a meal for you as well. A perfect _gentleman_, isn't he?" she finished, shooting both of them with freezing glares.

"N-not at all, Anna-sama! I just…I wanted to show Yoh something I discovered with my divining the other day--"

"Without your _kokkuri_ board? I must say, Tamao, if your divination is anything like your lying, you may as well stop while you're ahead and seek a career in the fast-food industry."

The cotton-candy-colored hair atop her head rustled slightly as Tamao swallowed hard.

"Now cut the crap. I know you've had a crush on Yoh for a long time now, it's an open secret. But Yoh and I are _engaged_, Tamao. We're not kidding around here. Besides," she continued, her voice not warming over in the least, "you shouldn't read into Yoh's actions too deeply. He's very kind to everyone he knows, but he loves _me_. Isn't that right, Yoh?"

He froze, the bandage he had been holding dropping to the floor, and looked anywhere but into Anna's penetrating eyes. He wanted very badly to say "yes," but he wanted even more urgently to _be_ loved, and it seemed to him Tamao had already shown more affection in the past half-hour than Anna had in nearly sixteen years…that is, until what would happen next…

"Yoh…Oh, fuck it." With those words still hanging in the air, Anna strode forth, roughly pulled up Yoh by the nape of his neck, shoved the back of his head forward, and planted her lips firmly upon his. Were Yoh able to see anything but Anna's passionately closed eyes, he might have seen Tamao looking on with a mix of shock and horror, but instead he simply continued staring dumbfounded into the two eyelids that were shut with an intensity to match her lips.

"A…Anna," Yoh managed at last, though he didn't know if he were asking a question, making a statement, or begging.

"I love you, dammit," she said, her voice still coming forth frozen. Without another word, without even looking back, Anna made her way out the door, with Yoh staring at the doorway long after it had shut. He could still taste traces of the first act of love Anna had ever bestowed him, and he didn't quite know what to make of it, or even if it had actually happened…Despite discovering both Tamao's latent affection for him and Anna's sudden passion, Yoh felt more lost than ever.

Tamao spoke then, reminding him that she was still there, and all his troubles sprang back to mind with her voice. "Yoh…"

_To be continued in "Found," Kiss #7._


	8. Found

Summary: In this touching conclusion to "Lost," Yoh has a revelation and realizes what he must do to solve his relationship woes…

Written: Over about 7 hours into the night of 8/8/07.

Rating: **T** for **mature themes** and **mild language**.

Notes: This is the conclusion to the story I began with Kiss #6, "Lost." This part turned out a lot darker than I had expected, but go figure, these "unfaithful" stories never have much humor in them. It was (and I didn't think this was possible until I ended up staring at what I had written, wondering how to continue, for the tenth time) _harder_ to write than the first part, so you better freakin' like it, hehe, just kidding ;)

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"_I know that you hope for longer goodbyes, embracing for forever, and falling in your eyes…"_

--_Dashboard Confessional, "Living In Your Letters"_

Found

_Kiss #7_

Tamao tried again, clearing her throat and getting up, supporting herself on her good leg. "Yoh, I'm sorry, I never should have come here."

"No, I understand, Tamao," Yoh said, shaking his head. "Like Anna said, you've had a crush on me for awhile. I mean, that's the kind of thing you can keep to yourself only for so long."

She smiled sweetly, and perhaps it was only because Anna rarely did it, or maybe because Yoh was beginning to notice that Tamao had become a lot prettier since he last saw her, but he was disarmed for a second by it. "You really are very understanding. Very sweet." She placed her unbandaged hand upon Yoh's gently and continued, "Maybe it's wrong of me to still be here, but I do know one thing, Yoh. You deserve somebody who cherishes you for who you are, not someone who pummels you for not living up to the pipe dreams they have in mind for you."

Yoh tried to deny it, but knew deep within himself that she was at least partly right. That desire for love that had flashed within him earlier now threatened to burn through his skin and singe the hand that was still lightly placed upon his…

Perhaps the turmoil in his mind was reflected in his face, for Tamao hesitated, withdrew her hand, and began limping toward the door. "I'm sorry, Yoh. I should not undermine Anna so, but I simply cannot stand the thought of such a wonderful young man stuck with such a cruel mistress…Thank you for tending to my injuries and hearing me out, Yoh, you know where to find me if you need anything…"

And she left him alone once more, standing before the kitchen table, his mouth agape, utterly lost in an ocean of conflicting thoughts, the confusion threatening to rend his head asunder. With a vast effort, he shook his head and found himself in his bedroom, for some reason holding a black obelisk in his hands. A vaporous stream began to flow from it, beginning to take shape, until a samurai floated in the nothingness before Yoh.

"Yoh-dono! It is most unusual for you to require my services at this hour. Nonetheless, I sense something is amiss. What troubles you?"

Now that Amidamaru was looking at him with concern, Yoh had no idea where to begin. "Err…do you remember Tamao? Bright pink hair, little shorter than me, ascetic diviner?"

"Ah!" Amidamaru replied. "Tamamura-kun! But do tell, Yoh-dono, how she relates to the burden that I daresay weighs heavily on your mind?"

"Well, you see…it turns out that she likes me. A lot."

The spirit made as though he had just dodged a mortal strike. "But Yoh-dono, that is unthinkable! You must marry Kyoyama-san--"

"Why?" Yoh interrupted, more loudly and fiercely than he had meant to, but all of his thoughts were now pouring out of him at Amidamaru's provocation. "In a half-hour with Tamao, she made me feel more wanted…more _loved_ than ever before! Anna's had her chance for years now. Why should I stick it out for her anymore?"

Amidamaru looked almost pained, and it carried into his voice. "Yoh-dono, I mean no disrespect, but Anna-san loves you more than anybody."

"Yeah?" Yoh demanded, unable to keep the bitterness out of his speech any longer. "Then why's she always so angry at me? Why doesn't she ever bother to express the love she supposedly feels for me?"

"Well, it is often said," the samurai mused, "that anger is simply love's disappointment. And she will naturally be disappointed in you quite often, given how highly she thinks of you. And as for the lack of expressed feelings, there are many different ways of showing love. Some are more subtle than others."

"But she's always so detached from her feelings! Someone that cold can't possibly even _feel_ love, much less be _in_ love."

"Yoh-dono, with all due respect, you of all people should know that we all hide our true feelings behind masks! How uncomfortable life would be if we all bore our emotions on our sleeves! Tao Ren puts on an air of reckless, relentless bravado to conceal the fact that he is hurting. Anna-san fulfills the role of the frigid dominatrix to distance herself from you because she cannot bear the thought of losing you." The warrior looked at Yoh with avuncular eyes then, nurturing and honest, but not painfully so, and continued. "You yourself hide behind laziness and try to convince everyone around you, and yourself to some extent, that you care not about becoming Shaman King, because some part of yourself doubts you could accomplish such a feat."

Yoh remained silent, taking in Amidamaru's theory with interest. Finally he said, "But…but…now that you mention Tao Ren. In my match against him, Anna stayed home, but Tamao came to her and begged her to support me in person. Why--"

"Ah, Yoh-dono, remember. Anna-san distances herself from you because the thought of losing you is too much for her to contemplate. She in fact invited Tamao over, so she wouldn't have to be alone while you battled. Now that you mention Tamao-kun, actually, Anna asked her to divine your fate while you were working to increase your mana alone in the cave. She worries about you, Yoh. Just not to your face. She fears if you know how precious you are to her, you will stop putting yourself in danger and abandon your dream of becoming Shaman King. It all makes sense, no?"

Yoh thought of how warm Tamao's hand had felt, lightly placed upon his, then thought about how everything about Anna seemed cold in comparison--her glares, her voice, the way she carried herself. Although he followed Amidamaru's logic, he couldn't help but wonder--not fantasize, as he felt too guilty about calling it that--if he'd be happier with someone else…

He felt suddenly tired, and he lay down, vaguely aware that Amidamaru had begun talking, but too deluged with fatigue and thoughts to really listen anymore, he put out a hand to wave him off, but the spirit moved to his outstretched hand and Yoh thought he felt another presence in his soul before he drifted off into a fitful yet dream-filled sleep…

--------------------------------

The delicate, veiled morning sun filtered through the living room window and Anna sat facing it, holding up a black garment to the light. "Have you seen my thimble anywhere, Amidamaru?"

"I'm sorry, I have not, Kyoyama-san."

"Please, Amidamaru, stop calling me that."

"Very well, Anna-san…"

"I can't believe I lost my thimble. I'm not much of a seamstress, so this is a painful learning experience." She flattened one of the tears in the cloth against her knee and began stitching it shut. "Oww! Dammit, first stitch and already my finger's a pincushion." She sucked the red spots on her finger with a frown.

"Anna-san, perhaps a trip to the local alteration shop is in order?"

She shook her head. "I made this outfit with my own two hands, and I couldn't touch anything for a week afterwards. This way, a little bit of me goes with Yoh, no matter where he is."

The samurai paused in midair. "That's quite a sentimental gesture on your part. I never would have expected…but I speak candidly, Anna-san. I apologize."

"What are you implying?" she asked, her tone both simultaneously heated and freezing.

"N-nothing, Lady Anna. Forgive me my indiscretion--"

"You question my love for Yoh, don't you?" The question was a lance of ice, penetrating and cold, and the spirit looked wounded.

"I--The matter is none of my business, Anna-san."

"The hell it isn't!" she shot back. "I will not have my fiancé's partner doubting me! Amidamaru, let me get one thing straight with you," she continued, her voice an intense, chilly whisper, "I love Yoh."

He nearly thought better of it, but her outburst had struck one of the samurai's nerves, and he blurted out, "Well, it's nice to actually hear you say it once in awhile."

Rather than react with anger as he had expected, Anna appeared suddenly contrite. "Amidamaru, have you ever heard the tale of my childhood?"

"I am afraid I have never."

"I'm an orphan, Amidamaru. Yoh's grandparents recognized my potential as a spirit medium, luckily, and they took me in." Her voice was flat, as though she were reading aloud the ingredient panel from the back of a box of cereal. "I was cursed, with an _oni_, a demon, who would appear when I least expected it. You can imagine how many friends I had, what with my tendency to randomly summon a bloodthirsty demon in the middle of hide-and-seek."

Amidamaru gazed intently at Anna, but her expression was as blank and neutral as her voice.

"Nearly six years ago I met Yoh for the first time. He came to visit, I guess his grandparents thought it would be a good idea for him to actually meet the person he'd been arranged to marry. Anyhow, my _oni_ sprang forth during the visit, but unlike everyone else, he stood his ground against the demon and swore to exorcise it from my soul. Yoh was the first person to care about the person who existed behind the _oni_, to see me as a person and not some kind of possessed…freak."

Anna had nearly choked on her last word but regained her composure after a deep breath.

"I owe my life to Yoh for what he did that day. I always have, and always will, love him. And after every fight I mend his battle outfit, trying not to think of…of how close he'd come to losing…and how close I'd come to losing him…"

Anna blinked her watery eyes as she fell silent, staring down at the damaged masterwork in her lap. Amidamaru appeared touched, but he was determined to press just a bit further. "Yoh deserves, after all he has done for you, to at least know his feelings for you are mutual."

Anna said nothing, and suddenly became very interested in a pair of deep rends on the front of the outfit. She threaded her needle and bit her lip when she felt its sting in her finger once more…or maybe she was restraining herself from showing pain from more than just pricking herself…

"Anna-san, perhaps it is time to try…a little tenderness."

"Amidamaru, I don't have time for this!" she shouted, then gasped when she realized how loudly she had yelled. "I--I didn't mean to yell…it's just that these rips here are pretty deep…and I'm going to need to get some more bleach and black dye, to get rid of these…these…"

The warrior looked over Anna's shoulder and saw the rends in the outfit, surrounded by a red stain that was evident even upon the black cloth. Amidamaru was about to say something, but at that moment he noticed Anna had bowed her head, and her body began to quiver.

Anna stared down at the mass of stained black cloth in her lap through blurred eyes, watching as warm drops fell upon it from her face, turning deep red when they ran into the stains, purifying them, and cleansing her guilty conscience as well…

--------------------------------

The first thing Yoh did when he woke up was open his closet. There, behind a couple of dress shirts he probably hadn't fit in years, was his black combat suit. He ran his fingers over the sleek material fondly, marveling at how impeccably each stitch had been placed. He squinted at where the deep gashes from his fight against Faust VIII had been, the ones that had reduced two of his ribs to shards of bone meal, and grabbed the fabric between his thumb and forefinger. There was definitely stitching there, but it had been done with a precise, intense passion, albeit one that was almost undetectable…

He took the hanger off the rack, stepped into the jet-black shorts, and slid into the top. It fit snugly, and felt reassuringly warm. He turned to the mirror and saw himself, and another figure dressed in black--

"Yoh." Anna's voice was unreadable, as usual, and her face worthy of the final table at any poker tournament.

"Anna! You're back early!"

"For the second time. It's harder than you might think to meditate when you're worried your fiancé is having an affair. Although frankly I'm surprised Tamao isn't present for this second surprise visit. You put that on to try to impress her, or something?"

Her unruffled reaction threw Yoh off. He didn't quite know where Anna stood, but decided it didn't really matter, that he had to try to make things right anyway…

"Anna…One of us is impressed, but it's not Tamao." He walked up to Anna coyly and grasped her left hand. She drew back slightly, and, expecting a slap, so did Yoh; but her free hand remained at her side. He looked at her fingers, felt their tips with his, and ran the most calloused one upon his battle dress, pausing as he searched for the right spot, and ran her finger across the two gashes she had mended for him.

She looked up at him, businesslike, but soon a smile revealed itself upon her lips. "You lost your thimble," he whispered, "but what I found in return…"

Anna's fingers moved from the mended spot on his outfit to the small of her back. "I always knew I couldn't trust Amidamaru," she replied softly, "but he was right."

Yoh caressed the small of Anna's back, almost able to feel the adrenaline rushing through her spine upon his fingertips. "About what?"

"It is time to try," she answered, her warm hand tickling at the back of Yoh's neck, "a little tenderness."

Then Yoh offered a better apology and explanation for last night with his lips than he ever could have expressed with his clumsy words, and Anna welcomed it, knew it was true by the gentle passion she felt upon her tongue, and herself offered up an apology for being so emotionally distant by rubbing his back in delicate circles…

They had a lot to atone for, and their lips remained locked for a long while, Anna's hands feeling the nubs and ridges where she had mended his clothes, sick with worry, but it was all right, he was alive, in fact more alive to her than he had ever been. She felt his spiky hair brushing against her face, felt a rush of energy shoot up her arm as Yoh's fingertips crawled down it, until both of his hands were cradling her left index finger, slightly swollen and tough from countless pinpricks.

"The way a needle must have thread, the way a tailor loves his thimble," Yoh whispered, "that is how I feel about you, Anna. You thought you lost your thimble, but I will always be here to shield you from pain, because…I love you."

"Oh, Yoh…I love you too," she choked, weeping silently into Yoh's uniform as she had so many weeks ago, but this time the uniform was undamaged and he was there, feeling the drops of warmth soaking into his shoulder, and then she felt his moist cheek rub the side of her face…


	9. The Hungering

Summary: While camping, Yoh forages for food, but discovers that some appetites aren't satiated by eating…

Written: In about 3 hours during the night of 8/10/07.

Rating: **T** for **romantic themes** and **coarse language**.

Comments: This will probably be the last story I write in a little while, as I will be returning to school soon. I wanted to publish this story before I became overwhelmed with schoolwork, so it's a tad rushed. I may come back to edit if time permits. So if you think it sucks…you're probably right, I didn't have enough time to polish it as much as the others. I hope you still like it though!

"_I'd buy you a little fuzzy bunny…if you…realize you don't have to be so pissed."_

_--The Ataris, "You Need A Hug"_

The Hungering

_Kiss #8_

The straps of Yoh's backpack chafed as though they were sandpaper upon his shoulders, and mosquitoes lapped at his copious sweat as he trudged on, every step sapping a little more of his energy under the merciless early afternoon sun. Suddenly he felt a sharp prodding in his lower back…

"Get the lead out, lazybones," Anna ordered, jabbing at him with a walking stick that she was now brandishing like a spear.

Yoh stood a little straighter and lengthened his stride slightly, but not by much, and he swatted at mosquitoes halfheartedly as the pair came to a turn in the trail. "Why are we going on a hike anyway? Wouldn't you be more comfortable watching TV or something?" he asked, not meaning to sound bitter but sounding like it anyway. "I myself don't mind a little exercise, but the uphill, and the sun, and the mosquitoes--"

"Are exactly why we're hiking," she finished for him. "In modern-day Japan it's easy to forget that the path of the shaman has existed for thousands of years. Our ancestors never had the luxury of electricity, of running water, of microwaves and automobiles. Sometimes," she continued, her usually stoic face now looking up, with what almost looked like a joyful expression, to the thin canopy of leaves above, "we all need to get away from it all and live the way our forebears did."

"Huh? We used to own four bears?"

"Our ancestors," she snapped, shifting her gaze back down to Yoh, any trace of happiness gone. "Idiot."

Yoh rubbed his backside where Anna's walking stick had just prodded him again. "Okay, okay, geez…"

"You know, there's plenty here that even a slacker like yourself can appreciate. The seeds of these trees, for instance." The vaguely cheerful expression returned to Anna's face as she continued, "They sprout, mature, then fall from the branches, moving mere feet in their entire lifetime, yet have the potential to be reborn as new sprouts with the next rainfall…" As Anna spoke, Yoh felt the grime and sweat disheveling his hair, blotching his skin and marring his face, but noticed how pretty his fiancée still was under the same circumstances. Her skin glowed faintly with a thin layer of healthy perspiration, causing her hair to stick to her cheeks and temples in a cute fashion, and the simple white shirt she had donned was clinging to her figure, exposing to him in detailed relief the shape of her every curve, the magnitude of every contour--

"Ouch! Would you cut it out with that damn walking stick already?!"

"Yoh, you're not even listening to me!"

"I--You got me there," he shrugged.

Anna's knuckles, he noticed, whitened considerably upon her walking stick.

"Okay, you have a point there."

"That's what I thought. As I was saying, I think this'll be a nice change of pace from being surrounded by glass and concrete all day."

"Wow…" Yoh blinked. "Another good point."

They had reached a clearing, the bushes and shrubs receding to border a grassy plain, and in the center towered a magnificent tree, its trunk knurled and ribbed and mossy with age, cresting into a verdant cascade of leaves some thirty feet above.

"Right," Anna said once they had sat in the shade of the tree for a few minutes. "I'll start pitching the tent. Yoh, you better start cooking lunch."

He nodded and cast off his backpack, giving a little sigh as cool air rushed into his back cavity. "Okay. Just pass me your pack and I'll get started."

She looked up, unconsciously dropping a few tent pegs into the grass, and a delicate frown marred her brow. "Huh? What for?"

"Well, I can't cook food when it's still in your backpack." He favored her with a corny grin, but she didn't reply in kind.

"No, the food should be in yours, remember? I left all the cans on the kitchen table for you to pack."

"I…uh…" Yoh unzipped his backpack and ransacked its contents, breathing out with a surge of relief as his hands closed around several tin cans. "Huh, guess I did."

Anna picked up one of the small cans and read the label. "Sternum™ brand Fuel In A Can. Heat anything, no matches necessary…Yoh, you're shitting me, right? This is just one of those jokes you're always pulling that I don't get?"

"Well…" But his hemming and hawing was unnecessary; she knew the truth.

"Yoh." She slammed her own backpack into the grass, kicking up dead blades and motes of dirt. "I swear you were at home picking your nose on the day they passed out the brains." A hatchet appeared from the depths of her backpack and she shoved it at Yoh, stopping it mere inches before it contacted him. "You are going to find us something to eat. You will not come back empty-handed. I don't care if you have to behead a mountain lion, I don't care if you hack off your left ass cheek and tell me it's a pork chop."

Yoh's head was bowed with shame, and he took the hatchet from her extended hand without shifting his gaze from the ground. "Yes, Anna."

He heard the violent hammering of tent pegs grow fainter as he ventured deeper into the woods, the shaking hatchet in his hands an embodiment of Anna's sharp words to him…

--------------------------

The mid-afternoon sun cast a brilliant golden light upon the foliage, but Yoh didn't notice. "If only Amidamaru could help me now…Stupid useless hatchet…" His stomach complained loudly, rumbling with hunger, and it didn't help any that his hunting had yielded nothing but a pocketful of questionable berries that he decided to carry uneaten until he decided whether or not they were poisonous. Soon, however, he noticed a low rumbling that wasn't coming from his stomach.

"Running water," he mumbled. With no other ideas, and realizing his hatchet wasn't likely to fell any game soon, he tracked the sound to its source. The sight of the clear, slow-moving stream imbued the exhausted shaman with a second wind, and he jogged to its bank, gazing down at his own fragmented reflection, and he saw dark, narrow shapes darting to and fro…

"Fish! If only I knew how to catch them…" And out of desperation, or perhaps the heat, or maybe even the grimy film he felt clinging to his skin, he dived in, clawing madly at his scaled prey, but they evaded his clumsy swipes. He tried again, but the spooked fish merely dodged once more.

"Crap. They make this look so easy in manga," he grumbled, fingering a drop of water out of his ear. The water was chilly, but it was a refreshing cold that kick-started his heart and stung his nerves to life. "Maybe Anna was right about this whole nature thing…it's so relaxing here, so peaceful, I feel…alive…"

His brain no longer fatigued, he thought out his next course of action. "I have no net, so I need a fishing pole, and bait, and I don't have any of those things…Wait!" Hit by a sudden wave of inspiration, Yoh crawled back out of the river, plucked a couple of berries out of his pocket, crushed one slightly, and threw it into the shadowed school of fish at the opposite bank. The black mass scattered, but slowly regrouped around the ripple Yoh's berry had made.

"Ha, guess these are edible after all," he chuckled, crushing a second berry and tossing it a few feet shorter. His prey obediently shifted their position, and in such a fashion Yoh lured them to his feet. "Here I go," he whispered, dropping the last berry into the water. He could see individual fish now, their silvery scales shining when they neared the surface, their fins pulsating as they glided forward, their gills opening and closing with the current…

Arches of water droplets cascaded off the object that squirmed in Yoh's hands, causing him to squint as he wrestled with it.

"No…" Its caudal fin undulated violently, like a pendulum on steroids, as he struggled to maintain a grip on its slimy midsection.

"You…" It gave a final, powerful jerk and flopped feebly on the grass, its gills expanding desperately.

"Don't!" Yoh picked up the fish and held it above his head triumphantly, as though he were a fireplace and the fish were stuffed and mounted. It felt gooey and unpleasant in his hands, but he didn't care, he had found something to eat, and maybe it would be enough to hold Anna over for a few hours.

Something rustled in the bushes at that moment, and Yoh picked up his hatchet out of instinct. He stared at the shrubs intently, motionless, dripping water into the grass, and two furry white ears like flower petals emerged…

"Aww, it's an _usagi_! C'mere, little fella…"

The leaves of the bush parted slightly, revealing the rabbit's head, then its body, until the entire critter bounded forth with an energetic bounce. Its wide, beady eyes looked at the hand that was beckoning it forth, then at the other hand clenched around the hatchet. The rabbit's perfectly white pelt quivered slightly along with its tail, unsure of what to do, but eventually leapt towards Yoh.

"That's it, little buddy, just a little closer. I'm just going to pet you…" Yoh could see its delicately wiggling nose now, and its gently wiggling whiskers, as it hopped even nearer.

There was a sudden glint of steel and flash of vegetation as Yoh's hatchet slashed before him, and bright red ichor splattered onto his hands and upon the ground…

--------------------------

Yoh saw an olive green shape through the branches and gave a small sigh of relief; the sun was nearly completely below the horizon now, and the trees had all begun to look alike. He removed his damp shirt and wrapped the food he had scavenged in it, and put his backpack upon his bare shoulders. He poked his head into the tent, expecting to find a livid and starving Anna, but saw only two sleeping bags, one of them with an Anna-sized impression still in it.

Against the sunset Yoh saw a silhouette sitting on a flat rock. There was something on her lap, and she was too absorbed with it to have seen him. He crept forward, intrigued, and Anna looked up suddenly, but in the opposite direction, squinting into the orange sundown. Then she glanced back down, and Yoh saw the pencil in her hands sketching lines and shapes onto the book upon her lap.

He was only a foot or so behind her now, and he could hear the sound of graphite gliding on paper. The lines took shape in Yoh's eyes; he could make out a tree, one that looked very much like the one near their tent, and a male figure with spiky hair and a large pair of headphones standing, almost leaning, over a shorter figure with a slender waist, but that image was incomplete.

"Anna, I…I didn't know you drew so well." The words were out of his mouth before he could stop himself.

She lurched forward, nearly losing her perch on the rock, slammed the sketchpad shut and rounded on Yoh. Her eyes were colored with a mixture of embarrassment and anger, but they saw his admiring, awed face, still staring at where her sketch had been, and then she noticed his bare chest, slim but well-defined, and golden in the glory of the sunset…Perhaps she was slightly sunburned, or else there was some other reason why her skin suddenly looked so pink…

"Yoh, I would tell you to go jump in a lake," she said, after a moment's hesitation, "but from the looks of it, you already have."

"Can I…maybe, see more of your drawings?" he stammered. "That's amazing, I wish I were talented like that…"

Anna's skin flushed a deeper shade of red. "I hope you found something to eat."

"I'm not sure if you like this," he said, "but I got one." He unwrapped his shirt and pulled out the fish. It bent over limply in Yoh's hand, as slimy and unpleasant as ever.

"Not one of my favorites, but it'll do." She picked it up nonchalantly, drew a pocketknife and made an incision on its underside. Yoh gave an involuntary cringe as its entrails dripped out. "There's definitely something wrong with you. I give you a hatchet and you bring me this. Maybe tomorrow I'll give you a fishing pole and you can bring me back a bear carcass. You find anything else?"

"Yeah, I found this too. Was pretty messy to get, but I did it anyway."

As Yoh reached into the shirt to pull it out, an alabaster streak jumped out from the bushes, sniffing the air intently, looking for its friend…

"A sweet potato," Yoh finished, handing the purple lump to Anna, but she gasped.

"Look!"

The bunny looked up at Yoh with beseeching eyes and rubbed its warm fuzzy body against his smooth leg. With an affectionate smile, he reached down and gently cradled the rabbit in his arms, scratching it behind the ears and stroking its soft fur.

Anna stood up and bent over the snow-white critter to get a closer look. She tickled the bunny with her knuckles, and it closed its eyes contentedly, drawing back its ears to express its comfort. "Yoh," she asked, her voice tinged with shock and delight, "how come this rabbit came to you?"

"Well," he said, sounding a little embarrassed, "I fed it some sweet potato leaves. They have this really thick red sap, it stains everything it touches, but…Look at it! I couldn't _not_ feed it, I mean…it's just a little fuzzy ball of joy, don't you think?"

Anna smiled at the rabbit, took it in her own arms, and looked up at Yoh, still smiling. "And you thought I'd be happier watching TV." She placed the bunny on the rock, where it sat, its pink nose still bouncing with delight.

"Nature isn't so bad, I guess," Yoh replied, smiling a little himself and giving Anna a meaningful look. "There are all kinds of cute, cuddly things to find there, that I want to hold in my arms forever…"

"Yoh, that's so…" Anna said, "…corny."

"I know," he admitted. "But I just couldn't think of any other way to describe the way you look, right now, with your blonde hair against the sunset, giving me that smile that I'd do anything to see, and how you make me feel when you look at me like that, and how I'm too afraid to tell you I love you--"

"I love you too, Yoh."

"Oops--"

Anna looked at him with the same stare she had given him so many times before, but rarely if ever had it felt so passionate, and certainly never before had her arms been around his bare back. For a brief moment they stood perfectly still, simply looking into each other's eyes, and then Anna's face rose to meet his, and she could taste the dried sweat, the essence of the effort he had expended to feed her, but a different appetite welled within her chest then as Yoh worked up the courage to place his hands in the small of her back, and the desire consumed him as well--to express and receive what they both felt for each other. The hungering had never been satiated before, but Anna gave with her tender hands and gentle lips, and it was her turn to receive Yoh's timid but affectionate tongue, his nervous but sincere caresses…

The hungering was gone, but they both knew it would resurface very soon as feelings of love are wont to do. Anna sat in front of Yoh, her back supported by his bare chest, his arms draped about her shoulders, with the veins on his compact biceps and the fine hairs under his arm tickling her slightly. She grinned and fingered his chin lovingly and said, "Well, I think the bunny's _way _too young to have seen that."

Yoh laughed. "Are you kidding me? You know the saying, 'mate like bunnies?'"

"I know the saying, and it doesn't apply to just rabbits…" Anna winked.

"Oh, so like…giraffes? And rhinos?"

"_Sigh_…Yoh, I can't believe someone so sweet can be so retarded sometimes…"


	10. Chemistry Lesson

Summary: Yoh knows that Anna's freakishly good mood _has_ to come with strings attached…

Written: In about 3 hours just after midnight, 8/12/07.

Rating: **T **for **innuendo**, **mild language** and **romantic themes**.

Notes: So I lied; _this_ is my absolute last story before I go back to school. I figured I might as well do a story that ties in with school somehow, so here it is. It was also inspired by my time as a high school tutor. It was very rushed; I don't have the time to proofread it at the moment (it's 4 am and I need to sleep in preparation for class). Let me know what you think; I'll come back to clean it up later.

Chemistry Lesson

_Kiss #9_

Beads of clear water glided off Yoh's smooth cheeks and down his forearms. He shook his head dry and dabbed fruitlessly at a wet spot on his shirt with his towel. He was so accustomed to the brutal summer heat that left the house feeling like an oven even in the mornings, but today was different--the temperature was, if not cool, then almost pleasant. It put him in a relatively good mood despite knowing what he had to do next; he whistled to himself tunelessly as he ambled down the staircase, making his way toward the kitchen to prepare breakfast--

Anna was standing at the kitchen table, placing a few sealed containers into a basket. She looked very strangely relaxed, even happy, as she closed the lid on the basket and looked up to the foot of the staircase with a pleasant face. "Good morning, Yoh."

"Er--" He was unaccustomed to receiving warm greetings from her, or warm anythings for that matter, with the exception of slaps that left his face stinging with heat. "Um…same to you, Anna." Not really sure of what else to do, he gave a slight bow.

Anna slung a rolled-up mat over her shoulder, covering her solid white halter top, and giggled at Yoh's formal bow. He shook his head slightly: _Did she just giggle?!_ _And I've never seen Anna wearing such provocative clothing…though I wish she would more often…_

"C'mon, don't just stand there," Anna ordered, although in a much more playful tone than she usually employed to make such commands. "Here, help me carry this basket."

Yoh awkwardly grasped the thatched basket's bamboo handle, carrying it in front of him like a basinet. He was still very unsettled by Anna's cheerful, warm demeanor; it was a bit like waking up and noticing the sky had turned blood-red. But he found as soon as he stepped outside that the sky was indeed still a majestic, uninterrupted azure, the air a tad warm but not chokingly humid.

"Um…Anna?"

She turned to face him, and he had never seen her look as attractive before. Her straw-colored hair seemed to absorb the warmth of the morning sun and her happiness, and the very pupils of her eyes beamed affection into his. "Yes?"

"Erm, if you don't mind me asking…why are you in such a good mood today?"

Anna laughed heartily, as though unaware that her usual disposition ranged from cold and uncaring to downright frigid and furious. "It's perfect weather for a picnic, and it's no fun having one alone, silly!"

She said it in a cheerful, matter-of-fact tone that confused him even more. _Since when does Anna bring me along for picnics?_

"Look at this, Yoh. Not a cloud in the sky! And just wait till you see what I've got for you in that basket…"

Anna continued to make eerily cheerful comments and observations as they drew nearer to the park, and Yoh did his best to restrain himself from grasping Anna about her delicate shoulders and demanding, "Who are you and what have you done to my fiancée?!" After about ten minutes of the most awkward peppiness he had ever experienced, they crossed the street and entered the park.

"Aw! I forgot to bring the kite," Anna lamented as they made their way past packs of animated children with sidewalk chalk and jump ropes, several black smoke-belching barbeques, and more than a fair share of couples sitting in places all too visible and engaging in behavior all too explicit to describe in a story rated "T."

They arrived at a knoll of thick, lush grass, shaded by a crooked tree, and overlooking the placid lake just a few feet away. Anna spread out her mat and sat upon it, gesturing for Yoh to join her. He sat, tense, unable to enjoy the shade, the perfect weather, the crystal clear lake, or, most of all, Anna's totally uncharacteristic kindness.

But Anna didn't notice his inner turmoil. She simply opened the picnic basket and withdrew several _bento_ containers overflowing with all sorts of goodies. Through the clear plastic he could see juicy marinated strips of _teppanyaki_, black-clad rolls of assorted sushi, pickled _daikon_ radishes glowing a strangely appetizing fluorescent yellow…

"I made it all yesterday when you were out running. I think I made enough for both of us, so help yourself."

Yoh blinked at the feast, segregated in containers and spread out upon the mat. _Anna actually cooked?_ He couldn't help himself any longer. Clearing his throat as casually as he could manage, he asked timidly yet pointedly, "Are…are you all right, Anna?"

"Me?" She pointed at herself with a pair of ivory-colored _hashi_. "Never better," she grinned.

Upon seeing her brilliant smile, Yoh hesitated for a brief moment, stunned, but forced himself to press on. "Please, Anna, be straight up with me. You and I both know we _never_ go on picnics or anything when there's training to be done. So what's the deal?"

The smile on her face wavered, but surprisingly was replaced by an even more rarefied countenance. Her lips pursed together, her shoulders sagged ever so slightly, and her brow wrinkled in a gesture of concern, even…_Pity? _Yoh wondered.

"Yoh," she said, her tone serious yet still warm. "They sent a mission of Shinto priests to Shinra Private Academy yesterday. The principal sent for them after he received complaints about…troubling spirits."

"Um…" Yoh knew by Anna's tone that this was grave news somehow, but he couldn't quite comprehend why.

"Think about it for a minute. When do you usually interact with the spirits at school?"

He gave a bashful grin. "Whenever I need to take a test. If they weren't there to bail me out, I'd never pass--"

Yoh's marbleized chopsticks landed on the mat with a dull thud, echoing the heartbeats he could hear reverberating in his eardrums in time with his constricted, shallow breaths.

"Yoh…I know it seems hopeless, but I'm not completely heartless, you know," Anna said after a few moments of silence. She tried to console Yoh, placing a tender hand upon his motionless arm, but even that failed to revive him from his shock and panic.

She withdrew several thick hardcover books from the bottom of the picnic basket. Handing a notebook and pen to Yoh, she said, "I…I'm willing to get you up to speed so you don't fail, but, well…it's up to you to learn this stuff for yourself. I can't force you."

He reached out for the notebook with a pale, quivering hand; his mind had just gone blank, save for the occasional thought of his grandparents denying the existence of their buffoon of a grandson…

"Let's start with some math," she offered, cracking open the respective textbook. "Linear equations in two variables. How much do you remember from class?"

Yoh stared at the page of questions. Every number, every _x _and every _y_, seemed to crowd his brain just a little more, until the symbols and digits lost all meaning and became a muddle of unrelated, random squiggles of ink. He blinked, forced himself to take a deep breath, and reminded himself that Anna believed in him, was willing to help him in his hour of need…

"Not much," he admitted. He jotted the first problem down and, after a few seconds of calculation, scribbled _(x, y) (3, -2) _beneath his arithmetic.

Anna looked at the problem and gave a weak smile. "That's correct. Well, nice to know you don't spend the _entire_ day napping at your desk. Try the next one."

Yoh tried the same approach as he had with the first one, but couldn't make any headway. Seeing his struggle, Anna suggested, "Try substitution."

He glanced up from his notebook to give Anna a blank stare.

"Don't know how to do that? How about subtraction? You just need to make sure your coefficients--"

"What did you just call me?"

Anna sighed. "Never mind. Let's move on to the next chapter, maybe it'll jog your memory," she said, impatience and the familiar coldness beginning to creep into her voice…

She jabbed at a problem with her slender index finger. "Show me what you got."

Sensing Anna's disappointment, Yoh willed the equation _2x² + 31x - 8 _to take on some bigger, cosmic meaning, to solve itself, but he knew he hadn't the foggiest idea how to make it so.

"Remember the quadratic equation?" admonished Anna in a reproachful tone. She wrote it on her notepad and pushed it towards him. He squinted at Anna's flowing, graceful handwriting, but couldn't make head or tail of it.

"Negative b, plus and minus…Wait a minute, how can you have plus and minus? Wouldn't they cancel each other out? And what's this squiggly line thing?"

"Plus _or_ minus! And--wait, you're kidding right?"

"No, what the hell is that?"

"A square root!"

"Roots aren't square! Carrots aren't square, radishes aren't square--"

"Oh, forget it!" The last remaining traces of Anna's patience evaporated as she slammed the math textbook shut. "You better remember more from your Japanese literature than you do with math."

Yoh frowned at the dense passages in his textbook, wondering how on Earth the publisher had managed to cram so many _kanji_ with such a small font size onto a single page. He licked his lips and began reading aloud, "_But…_um…_Shinnosuke had been raised in the outskirts of Edo, a_…something…_land where_…something something…_prevailed. The…_something…_code of Bushido was a mere…_something…_to them--"_

"YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO READ THOSE _KANJI_?!" Anna bellowed, wrenching the book from Yoh's lap incredulously. "I can't believe…Yoh, I learned that one in fifth grade…and this one, you see all the time…This one's so important, you can't write any decent story without using it at least ten times…"

Yoh swallowed hard, blinking rapidly, looking down at the coarse weaving of the mat beneath him. His voice was small and hoarse. "Anna…I know, it's pathetic, but I swear I'll learn every last one of those _kanji_, and that quadratic thing, and the deal with those coefficients or whatever…so long as you're willing to teach me, I'm willing to listen."

She gave him a steely glare, but insulted Yoh's intellect no further. Instead she shut the Japanese literature text firmly and picked up a chemistry book. "Let's start from the very beginning," she instructed, trying to keep the despair out of her voice. "Balancing chemical reactions."

Yoh looked at the questions and began scribbling his answers into his notebook. Anna checked them: _AgCl + NaNO3 __-->__ NaCl + AgNO3, 2NaOH + H2SO4 __-->__ Na2SO4 + 2H2O_…

"Yoh…you're not cheating or anything?"

"Nah," he replied, feeling a mote of pride welling up in his chest at Anna's surprised tone. "I like chemistry. It's kind of cool to know about…sort of like alchemy, except it actually works."

Anna flipped several chapters ahead to polyatomic ions. She read Yoh's answers again: _CH3COO, charge negative one, Acetate; CrO4, charge negative two, Chromate…_ Anna said nothing, but kneeled behind Yoh, watching him work, wondering how a dunce at mathematics and literature could possibly be recalling the Ideal Gas Law from memory, or know the half-cell potential of copper without checking the back of the book…

Finally Yoh tripped up slightly, solving a thermodynamics question. He wrote, _Change in energy -560 kJ/mol. Reaction is spontaneous and endothermic._

Until Anna spoke, the only sound had been Yoh's pen scraping against his notebook, along with a suppressed gasp here and there where Yoh had solved an entire page of problems without so much as reviewing the "Index of Useful Information" at the back of the book. "Actually," she said, breaking the silence, sounding more surprised than disappointed at his incorrect answer, "that would be exothermic. Remember, 'endothermic' means it absorbs heat, it gains energy, it becomes colder. 'Exothermic' means it releases energy, it gets hotter."

Yoh crossed out "endothermic" on his notepad and wrote the correct answer. "Ah, that's right. I always get those two confused."

Anna looked at Yoh intently. There was something she wanted to ask him, but she hesitated, and forced herself to ask. "Yoh…Why can you do so well at chem, but not know what a square root is?"

He looked at her thoughtfully. "Chem…makes sense to me. The way atoms form molecules and interact with each other, it's like pieces of a universal puzzle. But math, and these _kanji_, they make no sense at all in my head. Learning them is just impossible. Like the tangent of pi over two, or finding a copy of Shakespeare's lost play _Vortigern and Rowena_. It just can't be done--"

Anna had frozen at Yoh's last sentence. "The tangent of pi over two, Shakespeare's _Vortigern and Rowena_?! Did you just say that?"

"I…"

"I don't believe it…Yoh…"

She picked up his notebook and cast it aside, then laid her hands upon his knees. "So you do learn…some things…sometimes…"

"Anna," he said, groping for the right words, "this…It means so much to me that you're willing to help an idiot like me pass the tenth grade."

"Yoh," she responded, inching closer to him, "it's the least I can do. And I'm doing it," she continued, her hands gliding up his thighs to cling upon the sides of his torso, "for the same reason you do everything that you've done for me so far."

He hesitated for a minute, but gave a nervous grin and spoke. "I think I like this warm Anna a lot more than the cold, er, _endothermic_ one."

Yoh could feel her breath upon his cheek as she replied. "Here's a spontaneous exothermic reaction for you."

"That's about the corniest thing I've ever heard--"

But Yoh quickly forgave the corniness of Anna's joke as she grazed his jaw with cuddling fingers, guiding his lips to find hers. His legs uncoiled, and he felt all of her weight bearing down on his back; he submitted, feeling the coarseness of the mat upon his back as Anna lay down on top of him. Blond hairs wove themselves with black as their faces remained together, Yoh feeling the ridge on the roof of Anna's mouth, Anna tickling the underside of his tongue with hers. He felt the contours of her body upon his, felt a tenderness that transcended their clothing, and finally their lips parted, and they lay upon the mat beside each other, textbooks and _bento_ containers surrounding them, peeking out at them from behind overgrown grass.

Yoh ran his fingers through Anna's windswept hair, her eyes reflecting his, thankful and wonderfully happy for having each other. "Anna…"

"Hmm?"

"You know what I am right now?"

"Happy? In love?"

"Yea, that too…but I'm your derivative, because I'm lying tangent to your curves!"

"Oh God, Yoh, that was so lame…you're lucky that I love you."

"I love you too. Hey, how about, we share a certain _chemistry_?"

"Yoh…I swear…"

"Okay, okay…"


	11. A Sticky Situation

Summary: Yoh experiences the infamous "talk" that every adolescent boy seems to get. But since he's so distant from any of his other guardians, _Anna_ has to be the one to explain everything! An uncomfortable position for both of them, to say the least. What happens next?

Written: Over about a week from 8/13 to 8/20/07.

Rating: **T **for **innuendo, coarse language, **and **clinical **(non-explicit)** anatomic and biological references.** If you're squeamish about that kind of stuff, then be warned this story really pushes the envelope; consider it a borderline **M**.

Author's Note: This is it! Took awhile, but here is Big Number One-Oh. Hope you enjoy it!

A Sticky Situation

_Kiss #10_

Though Yoh was still certainly asleep, given how tightly his eyelids were shut and how gentle snores were escaping from his closed mouth, a casual observer might have assumed otherwise. Fortunately for him, no observer, not Amidamaru nor Anna--particularly not the latter, although she was in a way observing his body in his dream--was present at the moment. It would have been quite a spectacle had she witnessed Yoh, rolling onto his side, then onto his back again, his hips gyrating, his snores replaced by quiet grunts, his eyelids closing even tighter, his mouth opening slightly. She probably would have left the room from embarrassment by then, but at that moment Yoh began calling out to her, the sheets rising and falling more rapidly now, until several powerful contractions squeezed at his heartstrings and wrenched him awake, gasping and sweating…

He blinked and felt the sheets clinging to him like a shroud. _Why am I breathing so hard?__ And why did I sweat so much?__I wasn't having a nightmare, and it's warm this morning, but not too bad.__Wait, why is this sweat so warm and gooey?_He slid his index finger upon his sheets, feeling the whitish, viscous, hot substance upon his skin, and shuddered. _What _is _this?! Maybe I've got some kind of flesh-eating virus, I heard about t__hose on the news the other day.__ Could this be…maybe the virus is eating up my brains and they're leaking out of my skin somehow…_

Yoh's door slid open briskly, and his fiancée glided into his room in three short strides. Standing before Yoh's lying form with her arms akimbo, she stared down into his clammy face. "What's the holdup? Breakfast won't cook itself, you know."

In a few short seconds Yoh had convinced himself that flesh-eating bacteria had somehow taken up residence in his skull, causing a sticky brain-goo to leak out of his orifices. "Anna! Thank God! I think I'm…going to die!"

She appeared unfazed, her indigo top barely moving as she gave a dry laugh. "Very perceptive, Yoh. In fact you very well _may_ die, if you're not frying eggs in the next five minutes."

"No, seriously!" Yoh pleaded, sitting upright. The sheets continued to cling to his chest. "I think…it looks like a flesh-eating virus is in me and…"

"Yoh, if this is another one of your ploys to wriggle your way out of chores, I ain't buying it." Her slender arms moved from their position on her hips, and crossed upon her chest.

"But Anna…What is this then?" He threw off the sheets, exposing a Yoh who was sitting on the side of his bed with just a pair of boxers for privacy. Anna gave a scandalized gasp and jumped back a step, but Yoh continued, "It looks like liquefied brains, don't you think?"

In fact he felt rather foolish sitting there in such little clothing, but he was even more embarrassed when he realized that most of the "liquefied brains" had ended up clinging to his undergarment, giving the appearance that he had wet the bed…or…

"EWWWW!!!" Anna screeched in horror, recoiling all the way to the far wall of Yoh's room and nearly tearing his Soul Bob poster. "Yoh, that is gross as hell! Why in God's name do you think I'd want to see _that_?!"

"No…Anna, it's not what you think, it's not pee, I haven't wet the bed in almost ten years--"

"I KNOW IT'S NOT PEE, IT'S TEN TIMES WORSE!!!!" she shrieked, leaping with fury and disgust, her aggravated coiffure wildly flailing like a nest of blonde snakes. "What I _don't_ know is, why in your right mind would you want to show me that??" She glared at Yoh, but he noticed she interrupted her icy stare by glancing downwards occasionally. "I mean," she continued, slightly softer, "there is a lot of it, maybe you were trying to impress…But it's really gross! Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you?!"

Yoh hesitated for a moment, and then replied, "I was hoping you would know what's wrong with me, actually."

She cocked her head to one side and asked, in a voice as shocked and deadly subdued as it was glacial, "Was that supposed to be…Are you coming on to me?"

"What? Anna, I'm really scared, and you're acting like I did something really horrible," he responded. "I'm sorry, whatever it is I did to upset you. So I'm guessing this stuff isn't actually my brains, then?"

Anna raised an eyebrow, changing the quality of her stare from icy to disbelieving. "Wait a minute. This is another of your jokes, right? You know what it is, you have to…"

"Well," he ventured, wrinkling his nose, "it feels kind of like boogers, but the smell is way different--"

"Oh my God…Wait, you had…that class last year, I remember learning all of it!"

"Right, maybe I did," he replied, feeling himself wither slightly at her indignant tone, "but, well, Anna, you know me, I was probably taking a nap when they taught that stuff." He tried to look apologetic, but she just rolled her eyes.

"Ugh, yeah, probably. Well, why don't you just ask one of your friends at school, I'm sure they'll tell you, with all kinds of vulgar slang and X-rated descriptions. You'll like it."

Yoh looked down suddenly, as though her words had socked him square in the gut. "I would, but, well…I hardly talk to anyone at school, and you're my best friend anyway--"

It was difficult to tell who looked more shocked; Yoh stared at the wall behind Anna, bug-eyed, and he was reeling from his slip-up so hard that he ignored the strange, bleach-like smell that came from the hand he had slapped over his shocked mouth. She, on the other hand, merely froze with her hand halfway to her forehead, her usually narrowed eyes wide open; luckily he was stumbling over his own feet trying to apologize, and missed the sign that Anna was touched by his accidental forthrightness…

"It…it's alright, Yoh," Anna said, waving off his awkward apologies while inwardly forcing herself to stay calm. _His best friend…actually kind of touching, even if this kid's not exactly socially adept._ She massaged the sides of her nose bridge with a firm thumb and forefinger and exhaled sharply. "I guess…it's time for me to give you the talk your parents never did." When Yoh did not reply, but simply remained still, looking expectantly at her, she continued, "Well, uhm, err…This is harder than I thought."

"Just start from the beginning, please, Anna. I want to know what this is, I mean, I know it can't be my brains anymore, but I'm really curious…"

She gave another sigh. "From the beginning…oh man, this is awkward…" She fingered her dark blue top nervously, gliding her pinky over dark circles where beads of nervous sweat had dripped. _Yoh is so innocent and pure…Why do I have to be the one who changes that, and why do I feel so guilty about it?__Is it because maybe I want to be…more than his best friend?__No…well…_

"Well?" asked Yoh's antsy voice. Anna gave a little startled jump; having someone next to you say out loud the word you're thinking in your head is pretty freaky, after all.

She inhaled deeply and closed her eyes, as though about to meditate, but spoke, in a tone of voice that by Anna's standards almost sounded singsong. "Okay, Yoh…you see, the teenage years are when boys and girls become men and women. A number of changes happen. Both boys and girls start growing, err…" Despite her usual stoic attitude, Anna couldn't help but hesitate now. "They both grow, um, hair in certain places."

Yoh gave a little nod to show he understood; he may be slow sometimes, but not _that_ slow.

"In boys, the voice becomes deeper, and he gets a lot taller, and his body starts to fill out." Perhaps subconsciously, Yoh shifted his gaze from her to his own body, saw the slight creasing of his abdominal muscles, the modest but respectable sinews in his arm, the fine hairs that had started to grow beneath it…and now Anna couldn't help herself from looking at Yoh's form, covered only by a balled-up, sticky sheet in his lap, but he didn't notice her staring, he was still playing with the little hairs under his arm…

He looked up again, and Anna gave a high-pitched gasp, turned her face away in overreaction, and tried to pass her behavior off as a sneeze, although it didn't explain why she appeared to be blushing…

"Bless you," Yoh said in response to her alleged sneeze.

A sigh of relief passed through her lips, and she continued, "Erm, where was I? Oh…In girls, there is some height increase, and the body fills out in the uh…" She flinched, suddenly thinking of the right anatomical term to use. "The mammary glands."

She hadn't expected him to know what those were, but maybe he was just lucky. Anna couldn't help but notice Yoh's eyes shifting quickly to her chest, almost feeling his roving eyes molesting her gentle curves as he continued to sneak more rapid glances that couldn't be more obvious. He risked a peek at her face, and their eyes met; his were both excited and guilty, and he had expected hers to be angry, violated, reproving, but instead they looked slightly uncomfortable and surprised, perhaps … pleasantly so…

Their eyes remained locked for several seconds before Anna shook her head, much more violently than she had meant to. "Ahem…anyway, moving right along. As you continue toward adulthood, your body will begin making hormones. They cause certain…physical changes and can cause you to have…certain urges…"

Before she could think of a sufficiently delicate way to phrase the next part of her speech, Yoh smoothed out part of the bed sheet and pointed at one of the moist streaks on it. "This is all very interesting, Anna. Thanks for explaining so well…but what does all of that have to do," and he pointed again, "with _this_?"

"Well…God, how do I put this…" she wondered aloud. "Ah! Well, see, the hormones I was talking about earlier, the ones that give you certain urges? They also cause your…generative organs to become capable of reproduction."

As his reply, Yoh favored her with a completely baffled stare. "Anna. You're smart. I'm not. Could you put that in a way that I'd understand?"

It was her turn to stare blankly; she had no idea how to rephrase what she had just said without jeopardizing the story's "T" rating. "Uh…see, part of becoming a man, is the ability to…reproduce…"

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Yoh declared. "I did that once when I was nine!"

Anna looked appalled. "What?!"

"Yeah! And they turned out okay. A little off-center and blurry, but I still did it!"

Half of Anna laughed; the other half took in just how naïve Yoh really was. "No, not reproduction with a copy machine. I meant the ability to make…to have children."

"Oh!" Yoh's thin eyebrows shot up. "I know about that! The guys at school always talk about that at lunch. Except they never called it reproducing, I think they say 'fu--'"

"There are plenty of slang terms for it," Anna interrupted loudly. "But the proper term is 'intercourse.'"

"Well, whatever. So what's _that_ have to do with…you know…"

The crumpled sheets in Yoh's lap reminded her that she still had quite a task to accomplish. "Ugh. Don't tell anybody that I was the one to explain all of this to you, okay?" After he nodded, she took another deep breath and pressed on. "When a man gets excited, you see, it can cause a stiff…well, I guess the clinical term would be 'tumescence.'"

"Never heard of it--wait, when a guy gets excited? And cause a stiff…" He looked as though deep in thought for a moment, then his shoulders rose slightly and his face brightened. "Oh! It makes sense!"

"Huh?" Anna looked perplexed; it wasn't like Yoh to have such strokes of brilliance without the threat of death knocking on his door.

"Yeah! That time we went to the beach last week. I was wading in the water and you were about to come in. You let your hair loose, and you were running towards me in your bikini, and your skin was the same color as the bronze sand, then I saw your face in the sunlight…You're very pretty, Anna, you know, and I guess it did make me excited in a way, I got goose bumps and I felt my skin tingle…but anyway, I thought a jellyfish stung me or something because I was swelling up, but now I know! It was tumescence!"

Anna appeared both disturbed and flattered, and it seemed like she wanted to say something, but she bit her lip, trying her best to pretend she wasn't a little excited by Yoh's naïve confession; she forced herself to look away from him and continue. "Anyway, if a man with tumescence continues to uh, be excited, then it will eventually…release a fluid that can cause a woman to become pregnant."

Eventually, after several blank moments, a dawning look of comprehension began to appear on Yoh's face. He looked at the bed sheet, blinked, looked at Anna, blinked again, and suddenly gasped. "But…Anna! No! You need to get out of here, now! What if you accidentally touched it? We're not ready to have children! We're not married yet, and besides we're only fifteen--"

To both his and her shock, Anna placed her hand upon his quivering arm. "Don't worry, Yoh. It doesn't matter if I touch it. Women can only be made pregnant by it if…" She drew slightly closer, and Yoh felt a swelling in his chest as he felt her hot breath wafting upon his ear; she was whispering something…

"What?!" he exclaimed, drawing back from her shocked. "So that's what people have…that…for. But then why do all the guys at school want to do that so bad? They're just kids like me, they're not ready to have families of their own yet…"

In response, Anna drew herself nearer to Yoh once more and began whispering once again. "Because it feels…" and the rest of her words were nearly inaudible, definitely drowned out by his gasp.

Beet-red and bug-eyed, Yoh looked as though he had just stepped off a particularly harrowing roller coaster. "I can't believe it! Every guy in my class is disgusting." He made a face; since he was still flush with embarrassment, it was quite a spectacle. "Wait a minute…why was I able to release…this stuff? I was sleeping! I certainly wasn't doing—I mean I kind of was dreaming about—err, never mind…"

Once more, Anna was secretly excited by Yoh's candid confession, maybe even a little…_excited_, but she commendably ignored her urges and cleared her throat diplomatically. "Well, as I said earlier, any kind of stimulation will result in a…release of fluid. It doesn't have to be from another person. When you cause it to yourself, and there's nothing wrong with it either, it's called—"

Yoh interrupted, looking triumphant. "I know! It's called jacki—"

"It has," Anna cut in before he could finish, "a lot of nicknames."

"Oh my God," he started. "That's what those guys were doing in the locker room! I thought maybe they were making sure they were clean over there."

She smirked. "Maybe the guys in your class really are disgusting."

"I told you!"

"Anyway," she said with a chuckle, "it looks like I finally get to the part you've been waiting for. If a guy doesn't get to release his fluid from intercourse or from…what you just described, then it starts to build up and it has to go somewhere. So, sometimes when a guy is sleeping, he will have an exciting dream or rub against the mattress and have a nocturnal emission."

"A what?"

Anna pointed to the wadded bed sheet in his lap. "A that."

"Oh!" He sat up and nodded. "Is there anything bad about it, though? Like do I have to go to the doctor?"

"It's all part of growing up. In fact it's good. It means you're waiting. After all, you shouldn't…have intercourse…until you fall in love. You have to find the right person."

"Who's the right person?"

"When you meet her," she said, and Yoh heard the unusual note of kindness in her voice, "you'll know."

He felt color rising into his cheeks as he thought of the dream he'd had last night, and maybe it was his imagination but as his memories grew more vivid, it seemed that the little smile on Anna's face grew as well. Could she see, somehow, into his mind, where he recalled her delicate arms, her slender torso, the mop of blonde that lapped at her neck and shoulders? Perhaps she could see, as he could now in his mind, the way his eyes had locked with hers, her face beautiful with a sultry, almost supercilious expression that kept him enthralled.

Yoh advanced slightly in his mind, and even from the mere recollection of something as immaterial as a dream, felt his heart pumping faster, just as it had when he was sleeping not one hour ago. Anna looked at him then, mouth opened slightly, her eyes narrowed just a bit, but not with irritation, and he let her goldenrod strands of hair cascade upon his gently brushing fingertips, coyly inching his free hand towards her waist, the other moving back slightly and sliding up from the nape of her neck—

Sometime around then, the line between Yoh's dream and reality blurred and, as Anna gave a little gasp of pleasant surprise, disappeared entirely. The fine hairs on his upper lip tickled hers just before they grazed, and he could taste the salty traces of dried excitement there. She could feel his still sticky hands nestled upon her back, and a little shudder of adrenaline surged through her body as the warmth of his bare chest enveloped her. The bed sheet was suspended now only by her hips and legs pressing against his, and Yoh gave a soft sigh of pleasure that Anna swallowed up as she slid her tender hands upon his back, feeling his taut shoulder blades, his spine that vibrated with nerve and excitement. It was her turn to sigh; Yoh pressed his body to hers tightly, closing his arms, and she could feel his heartbeat upon her chest, felt the suppleness of his tongue as it chased hers to and fro…

They stood in each other's arms for quite some time, her ebullient face craned up at Yoh's, and somehow she knew the lazy, almost childish smile he wore meant more than anything he could have said at the moment. She, on the other hand, finally broke the silence.

"That was very bold of you, Yoh."

He smiled even more broadly as he took in her affectionate, soft tone. "People do crazy things when they're in love. It's like you said, Anna. 'When you meet her, you'll know.' You are the girl of my dreams…literally."

"Aww…I love—" But before she could finish her reply, Yoh abruptly sat down, crumpling the bed sheet tightly in his lap. "What's wrong?" she asked, but she saw his embarrassed expression and the balled-up sheet in his lap and figured it out.

"Maybe I should finish your lesson for today," she said sultrily, and whispered something in Yoh's ear that caused him to blush more furiously than ever…


	12. Everyday Miracle

Summary: Yoh's hapless rhetorical skills get a kick in the pants (figuratively) from Manta and (almost literally) from Anna. But does the help actually improve his writing?

Written: From 8/21 to 8/22/07.

Rating: **T** for **coarse language** and **romantic themes**.

Notes: I felt a little guilty about taking so long to write #10, so here's #11, just a day later. It may take a few days for the next, though; classes have begun in earnest. Let me know what you think of it!

Everyday Miracle

_Kiss #11_

"_I love to take na__ps. If I was in charge, I would_—"

"You mean, 'were.'"

"What?" Yoh looked up from the paper in his hands and saw Anna, a fist perched on the waist of her black skirt, looking impatient and deadly.

"You're speaking in the subjunctive tense, so you have to use the past participle of the verb. Not 'was,' but rather 'were.'"

"'Subjunctive'? 'Participle'? Anna, what are you talking about?"

The sheet of paper parted company with Yoh and found itself in Anna's white fingertips. She picked up a red pen from the table and crossed out his 'was', adding to the network of crimson lines that crosshatched his manuscript. "Honestly, this is embarrassing. You spend half your time hanging out with Manta, and he's one of the smartest kids I know. Why doesn't any of it ever rub off on you?"

He sighed and looked down at the floor, seeing Anna's slippers tapping out an annoyed rhythm from the corner of his eye. "I…I asked him to help me write this, actually, but he's late…"

A derisive laugh prefaced her response. "Help you write that, my ass. More like you're going to piss away the afternoon miniature golfing and spitting off highway overpasses." She saw Yoh's affronted expression and relented slightly, but not by much. "Well, whatever. You're taking away from my TV time. Just remember that if you don't get a decent paper written, you will fail. And I don't associate with failures."

From behind Yoh, several sharp raps echoed down the hall. "That must be him, finally."

"Come in," Anna called, in a tone that completely contradicted the nature of her offer. A jarring creak resonated in the hallway, followed by a subdued slam and footsteps. "Manta," she continued in a tone no less glacial, "this know-nothing is all yours. Prove me wrong and teach him something."

Manta quaked in his small shoes and gave a deep bow, although Anna had already left the room. "I'll do my best, Anna-san." He climbed into the now vacant chair before Yoh and placed a thick tome upon the table. The taller boy made sure he could hear the television from the other room before he spoke.

"'Anna-_san_'? She's not _your_ slave driver," he joked with a sheepish smile.

"I know, but…Your fiancée, she scares me sometimes, in all honesty."

"You're not the only one. If I don't get a good paper done soon, I swear she's gonna slip cyanide into my toothpaste."

His diminutive friend chuckled at that. "You've already got something written? That's good."

"Well," he replied, pushing the heavily revised draft across the table, "it's something. But it's no good."

Manta scanned the paper quickly, taking in each line rapidly, every now and then giving a noncommittal grunt or wobble of the head. "So, the 'everyday miracles' you're writing about are sleep and naps?"

He was answered by a gaping yawn. "Yep," and he stretched his arms behind his pointy hairdo, "they really are, you know, I feel so refreshed after a good night's sleep, and without naps, I'd die of boredom at school."

Stubby fingers pried open the gargantuan book on the table and flipped through its pages quickly. "I'm not going to argue that point. I like to nap as much as the next guy. Hell, I could use a good nap, seeing as how my dad's making me take extra cram school. It sucks like a nuclear-powered vacuum cleaner." He continued as Yoh laughed, "But…I think there's really only so much you can say about sleeping and naps. After all, when you're asleep, your brain more or less shuts down. I think you'd be better off writing about something you can describe in more detail, something profound, poetic…" Suddenly his frenetic flipping stopped, and the pages came to rest. "This, for example."

The page displayed a deep red, amorphous blob, textured in places with blue lines, white ridges, and adorned with four tubular appendages roughly at right angles to each other.

"Is this…a heart?"

Manta smiled. "It's an everyday miracle." His finger trailed down the page now, and he was reading aloud interesting factoids as he found them: "At rest, the average heart beats 72 times per minute, or just about 2.7 million times in the average lifetime. Those heartbeats will pump about 9 million liters of blood through your veins every year! Think of it, it never stops beating, not even when the rest of you takes a nap."

Yoh was still fixated upon the picture on the opposite page, but he nodded slowly. "That's pretty cool, actually. Without it, none of the other organs would get any oxygen. Plus, like you said, it's always going, no matter what!"

"The ancient Greeks thought the heart was the body's control center, even though we know today that it's the brain that's in charge. But people still consider the heart to be the foundation of emotions—especially love."

"Yeah! Like the way it beats faster when you get excited? I see why the Greeks might have thought that…" Yoh picked up his draft, flipped it over and began to jot some ideas down. "Hmm… 'Center of emotions,' 'Never stops beating,' 'Beats faster when excited'…This is good stuff! Thanks, Manta!"

"Always a pleasure to help." He hopped off his chair and began pushing it in, but Yoh stopped him.

"Whoa, whoa! Going somewhere already?"

Manta made a face. "My dad wants me to come home right after cram school. I think you met him before?"

"Oh…" Yoh recalled that the one time he and Manta's father had been in the same room, he had to restrain an urge to stagger off his gurney and strangle the little autocratic son of a—

"Yeah…Sorry, Yoh. I'll see you at school tomorrow. Good luck with finishing the paper!"

Yoh returned his wave and sat down. Despite the fact that he was sitting before a blank sheet once again, this time he felt energized. He closed his eyes for a moment, feeling his own heart thumping, letting it inspire him, and then put his pencil to the paper. _The heart in each of our chests is an Everyday Miracle because…_

"_…over nine million liters of fresh blood to your vital organs every year!_"

Anna crossed one of her legs over and stretched slightly, stifling a yawn.

"Sorry, Anna. I'm not much of a writer."

She shrugged. "I didn't mean anything by the yawn. I'm just a bit tired, is all."

Lines of eagerness appeared on Yoh's expression. "So, what do you think so far?"

"Eh. It's not Dickens, but it's not bad either. Continue, if you don't mind."

He swallowed and continued. "Ahem. _When we get tired from our everyday routine, we get headaches, our eyelids sag, our backs hurt, but the heart keeps on chugging! Even as we dream, even when our brains are too exhausted to think clearly, our hearts continue to beat. Its—_oops, hang on…" Yoh added an apostrophe to the draft. "_It's truly a miracle._"

"I still think you could have picked something a little less gross. What about sunrises, plants, electricity?" She smirked. "Or even the miracle of you writing a half-decent paper."

One of the pages in Yoh's hands drifted to the floor in his shock. Even backhanded comments from Anna were rare, and he knelt to retrieve the page, trying to hide his blushing.

"Now, don't get bigheaded. It's all right so far, but if it's got a weak ending, the rest doesn't matter."

With a hint of hesitation, he ruffled the papers and read aloud in an unconfident voice, "_When the rest of the body is exerted physically, it wears out. The lungs heave in exhaustion, the legs twitch with fatigue, the entire body drips with sweat. Years of daily twenty-five-mile runs with weights strapped to my arms and legs have taught me that—_"

"Very subtle, Yoh." Her words were sardonic and her tone icy, but Anna looked almost entertained by his editorial aside. "But I think you're going to have to cut that part out."

The abrading noise of graphite on paper filled the room as he trimmed the relevant line from his narrative. "Where was I…_drips with sweat. The body wants to stop. It wants to sit down and have a drink of water, or maybe take a short nap. But the heart, unlike the rest of the body, wants to work _harder_! It pounds more and more…_How do I spell 'furiously'?"

"Huh?" Anna's mouth was open slightly, and she looked a bit dazed, staring at the wrinkled sheets in Yoh's hands with intense eyes. "Oh…don't worry about it. I'll check your spelling later. Keep reading."

"If…if you say so. Are you okay, Anna?"

She gave an uneven nod. "Yeah."

"Alright…_It pounds more and more furiously. It goes faster the more the body wants to slow down! It's like a drumbeat keeping time for the rest of the band, the metronome_"—Anna gave a slight gasp at his vocabulary, but he had already continued on—"_of the human body__'s symphony. __But physical activity isn't the only thing that can increase heart rate. __The ancient Greeks believed the heart to be an everyday miracle too: They believed the heart functioned as the center of all thought, because of the way it quickened, seemingly in response to excitement, to fear, to all emotions, really. Today we know the brain really is the organ in charge. Nonetheless, the heart—_"

"Yoh." Anna uncrossed her legs and clasped both her hands around one of her knees. "Did Manta write this for you, or something?"

"Well…he did give me the idea to write about the heart. But I took it from there."

"No…you don't have it in you…or at least I've never seen you write anything nearly as slick before…" Maybe it was the way the orange afternoon sunlight played on her face, but she looked a little pink in the face as she blustered, "I…have to admit I'm a bit impressed, Yoh. Writing about the heart must've really inspired you or something."

"Maybe," he ventured weakly, but Anna gestured him to continue. "Um, let's see…_Nonetheless, the heart continues to this day as the seat of all emotion. Devastation makes our chests feel heavy and helpless. Excitement causes our pulse to flutter, fear sends blood thumping into our temples, and then there is love_—"

The abruptness with which Yoh had stopped reading aloud did not go unnoticed. Nor did his sudden move to hide the papers behind his back. Anna squinted at him suspiciously, leaning forward aggressively, the azure beads around her neck rattling with distrust. "Yoh, your essay is incomplete?!"

Her accusation froze in midair above his head, crystalizing and pelting him with flecks of snow; he gave an involuntary shudder. "No, I…I just think I can cut this last part out here, I ramble a little. No sense in reading it to you if it sucks, right?"

"I don't need to see bullshit in order to know it by its smell," she countered, just as icily. "Everything you read so far is probably the best damn thing you've ever written in your life. You're hiding something from me. Now out with it."

Yoh's resolve withered along with his shoulders; he knew there was no denying Anna's request. Every tendon in his tensed arms resisted him as he withdrew the papers from behind his back, smoothed out the creases deliberately, and sighed in resignation. "_And then there is love, the most powerful emotion of all. Love is a multifaceted thing,_" he read, his voice shaky and stumbling, "_an Everyday Miracle in itself, albeit one that is unique to each couple. There is a hand, blotched red with fury, that strikes fear into my heart when it rears up for a slap. There is a slender back, draped in a lovely black dress, that makes my heart stop beating every time it walks away from me in disappointment. And there is a face, with frightening angry ebony slits for eyes, deep creases of frustration upon its brow, and luscious lips opened wide, bellowing insults and remonstrations, and as I take it all in, I feel my chest burning with gloom and self-pity._"

Yoh took a few deep breaths then, seeing Anna's unmoving, stoic figure above the top margin of the draft he was holding with unsteady hands. "_But it is during those rarefied moments when I take that hand within mine, when that back turns around and greets me warmly, when that face is relaxed, the eyes opened wide with delight and gazing into mine, the brow smooth as the flawless cheeks, the lips smiling sweetly—that is when my heart palpitates strongest and I am left utterly breathless. That hand, that back, that face, all belong to my fiancée Anna, and so does my heart. In that fashion, she, and not my heart, is my Everyday Miracle._"

Yoh lowered his head in shame at what he had just read, feeling distinctly hot behind the ears, but in one fluid motion Anna leapt off her seat, relieved Yoh of the draft and placed it on the table, and clasped both her hands behind his neck.

"I told you it was awful! Don't strangle me, Anna, I'll just edit it out like I said…" Then he realized that no choking was imminent, and he looked, bewildered, at her, but she simply said:

"You'll have to edit it, but only because you didn't write in this part."

Anna's slender lips planted themselves upon his, and she could smell shaving cream wafting from his cheeks. She felt his pulse against her chest and her fingertips upon his neck, beating faster now, and as she slid her tongue between his teeth an indescribable heat diffused through his back, and she felt against her arms, felt it as surely as she could feel his spiky hair grazing her face, and then an identical rush surged through her chest…Yoh tightened his arms around Anna's midriff and felt her peachy, tingling skin, felt little ripples of adrenaline shoot through his fingertips where they glided across her back, and she pulled back slightly with a satisfying _smack_.

"Well, it's too bad you can't take this approach with all your classes."

Yoh laughed in Anna's arms, and they held each other close for a long while, basking in the everyday miracle that is all too often taken for granted…


	13. Venus

Summary: Anna doesn't just watch soap operas for the entertainment value. What _does_ she do at home while Yoh battles, anyway? Take a shocking glimpse into Anna's mind in this first part of a three-story series…

Written: From 8/23 to 8/24/07.

Rating: **T** for **mild language**, **suggestive themes** and good old-fashioned **angst**.

Notes: Most importantly this story is the first part of a **three-shot**. I tried my best to make this story viable by itself (in other words, I intended it to still be a legitimate one-shot to fit the theme of "A Shower of Kisses" while at the same time incorporating it into a longer story arc). It is written in _Anna's first-person point of view_, which, believe me, was quite awkward for a male author such as myself. Be that as it may, to my female readers, I hope you find it believable, and I hope all readers regardless of gender enjoy it. Let me know what you think!

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_"I won't say a word…Silent but strong, yeah, I'm playing that card, and you're noticing nothing again…"_

_-Taking Back Sunday, "This Photograph is Proof"_

Venus

_Kiss #12_

Call it what you will, but I've never had very many friends. I like to delude myself, sometimes, that a lack of social prowess comes part and parcel with being a shaman, but I see my fiancé going on daily jaunts with Manta, Horohoro, Ren and Ryu, and every time I hear his innocent laugh I feel another bit of me die inside.

The desolation gets old fast, believe it or not. In my defense, I never was given much of a chance. Between being orphaned, fending off a demon that possessed me for years, and training, I never had much time to sharpen my social skills. Not that the lack thereof made much difference; after all, would _you_ care to associate much with some weird girl who for all you know would sprout horns and spit fire at every bystander in a fifty-foot radius, no matter how socially charming she was?

If I sound a little resentful, then you don't know the half of it. On the other hand, a lack of a social life has its moments—it affords me lots of time to think. My thoughts mostly occur before the television, another perk of my solitude. It is there upon the sofa, when I watch the hourly melodramas unfold in that campy, overacted way only soap operas can deliver, that I can shake off my worries and supplant them with fictional ones.

Anxiety arises naturally as a result of thinking. In my case, given the hours on end I'm afforded to think, the troubles swarm in the hive of my brain, and oftentimes I find myself unable to sleep, the buzz of anxiety echoing in my head, its jarring frequency almost sending my pillow vibrating. I worry the money will run out and even our meager existence as we know it will cease. I fret over the possibility that Hao, precious little that I know about him, will one day find his way to my bedroom. I'm concerned with the unknowns that abound in my knowledge of Hao. But most of all, I worry about Yoh.

You could say that in our relationship, Yoh definitely got the short end of the stick. He's the one who cooks, cleans, conditions himself and walks on eggshells whenever I'm around. He's the one who's liable to get chewed out, even when we both know damn well who's at fault. Yoh, lest we forget, is in clear and present danger so long as he remains a contender for the title of Shaman King. Just about every wannabe who's ever so much as cracked a joke to a ghost from Kyoto to Konigsberg wants to take Yoh down a peg.

When I say "lest _we_ forget," I'm not including myself.

I could never forget.

You wouldn't be able to forget either if the man you loved came back from a weekend excursion tattooed with virulent bruises and smears of blood. You _definitely_ wouldn't forget if it was the same story week after week. And those recurring visions of him unmoving in a ditch somewhere, with shattered limbs horribly bent back on themselves…People often say Yoh puts his ass on the line every day while I just mind the store back home. I won't deny that, but if you think it's easy having a solid sixteen hours a day to ponder whether or not the one you love will make it home alive, day in and day out, think again.

Yes, I love Yoh. Surprising, perhaps. But if soap operas have taught me anything, it's that losing someone you've become attached to will devastate you. I love Yoh, but in a platonic, almost sisterly sense. Any more deeply and my anxieties would choke me in my sleep.

I love him, but I could go without him.

That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

A good indicator of my anxiety, of my denial, is the extent to which I find sitting still unbearable. That would explain my aimless meandering through the deserted halls and rooms of the En Inn. I straighten a rug here and realign a painting there, my fingers subconsciously shaking, trying not to think about how much the painting of a tree in autumn, suffused in the deep orange of late afternoon, looks a bit like a young man wearing tangerine headphones, copiously dripping blood onto the canvas…

Come to think of it, everything reminds me a little of Yoh, actually. That's a bad thing when you're already one step from a nervous breakdown. "Relax," I tell myself shakily, "Yoh just left to buy some groceries. So he's been gone three hours, maybe he ran into Manta on the way or something. It's just the supermarket; what could go wrong?"

Even to my desperate ears the smugness of my voice sounds strained and artificial. I know full well that the danger Yoh faces doesn't diminish even when he's sleeping in the room next to mine; compared to that, the supermarket is like a convention of Death Row inmates…across the street from a gun factory.

Why am I so anxious? I shuffle like a zombie to the refrigerator, my mind racing against my will, and the cold air wafts against the hem of my skirt, ethereally chilling, like prying open an unearthed coffin. My clammy fingers close around the top of a Coke bottle, prying off its cap with a preoccupied flick of my wrist, and I raise it to my lips willing myself to believe it's an elixir, a philter to ward off my fears.

It's refreshingly cool and almost sickly sweet, but it's no magic potion. Sooner than the mouthful of cola is down my gullet, the doubts resurface. I sigh and pull out a chair for myself at the kitchen table, resigned to listening to my inner voice.

Just outside the window, the sunset begins in earnest. The Zen rock garden is magnificent in its golden splendor, its smooth stones fiery red in the dusk, resembling a bed of hot coals. The cirrus clouds near the horizon form puffy pink lines against a prismatic background that darkens from delicate azure to deep maroon. All in all, it's a magnificent view, but the sight of those clouds crisscrossing upon a color that's all too much like bruised flesh spoils it somewhat. My memory flashes back several weeks until I pinpoint why the sunset is so upsetting…

One of Yoh's adorable habits is the tuneless, atrociously off-key singing he always performs in the shower. When I don't hear him killing the chorus of a Soul Bob song at the top of his lungs, then I know the coast is clear for me to soak in the bathtub for a bit. One day about three weeks ago, the house had been oddly silent; I think I had forgotten that Yoh was even home. I walked into the bathroom oblivious, with a robe tucked under one arm and a newspaper under the other, completely unaware of the cloaked figure behind the shower curtain.

I'm not sure why I hadn't just left the room once I saw the specter of his body toweling off behind the curtain, but in any case before I could leave, the shower curtain whipped to one side, revealing a dripping Yoh completely in the nude. I think we both screamed; he scrambled like mad and made to cover his waist with a towel, but I remained rooted to the spot, unable to shake free what I had just seen…and not for the obvious reason, either.

There's no denying that Yoh's rigorous training for the Shaman Fight left him in very nice physical condition; I have to confess part of me couldn't stop staring because, as he gaped at me with horrified, wide eyes, with his matted black hair trellising down to his collarbone and dripping beads of water onto his chest, Yoh was _very _cute. But that aspect of Yoh's physical appearance was more or less what I had expected; I had never seen him in the altogether before, but his build was just as sleek as I had imagined it would be.

But I had never spared a thought to what might be lurking beneath those clothes other than taut muscles, and that revelation absolutely stunned me. His biceps and shoulders were tattooed with a network of scars, some light, some deep, some old and completely healed, some still tender and rosy. A truly horrific bruise of the deepest vermillion marred the flesh over his right ribcage, and the opposite side of his chest sported a heroic gash that ran nearly from nipple to belly button. It had not quite healed yet and I could see the oozing pink skin where the scab had begun to peel. And at that moment I felt the injuries that Yoh had suffered personally, as though it had been _my_ arms butchered by claws and daggers and near-misses, _my _ribs sundered by a twenty-ton behemoth, _my_ chest incised by a ten-foot spear…

And Yoh's innocence, his offhandedness, the naïveté, were thrust at me in stark contrast to the injuries he had sustained by the tender age of fifteen, more than most haggard war veterans have seen upon their deathbeds. He whispered—and I saw a fresh gash on his neck that bulged out with his Adam's apple as he swallowed delicately—"Anna…I'm sorry…" as though _he_ had done something wrong, like _he_ had walked in on _me_ bathing, like _he_ had been the one watching TV for hours while I had brushes with death on a daily basis…

I could say absolutely nothing; it felt as though _my _throat had been assaulted. I wanted to cry out, to support that earnest face against my chest as I did my best to assuage the anguish of his injuries with my touch, but for some reason I remained motionless and speechless. I wanted to tell him _I _was the sorry one, that I couldn't bear seeing my love so badly battered, much less even begin to contemplate what it might be like with him gone…

More than anything else, I fear that, were I more expressive of my concern, my love, for Yoh, it would simply interfere with his laid-back lifestyle. I know he operates best with a carefree mind, and if he had to constantly worry about a loved one, as I do, his performance would suffer. Do I want him to know I love him? No.

Maybe…

It does beg the question, doesn't it?

Do I want to know if _he_ loves _me_?

No.

Maybe…

A lifetime of isolation has hardened me prematurely, and I often lose sight that Yoh's barely old enough to be a high school student. He certainly seems mature enough to be capable of love, but for whom, and on what level? Does he regard me as a close friend, a mentor, or even a personal trainer of sorts? Or…something more?

It's harder than you will ever know for me to be so draconian with Yoh. It's a bit like being the proverbial kid in a candy store, except the kid in my version also has to throw away every last sweet with her own two hands. The way he sometimes acts so _strangely_ around me, I find adorable, but to react any more strongly than with an impassive glare would be letting on too much, I think…Somehow the idea that my presence makes him nervous in that manner so particular to teenage love excites me. This morning he kept looking at me out of the corners of his eyes, almost as though there were a surprise in store for me that I would discover any moment.

But there will be no surprises, at least none for Yoh. I have my duty as the future Shaman King's wife to do everything in my power to help him achieve his goal, and love merely complicates things. If I must exercise restraint and torment myself with a love that will remain platonic and unexpressed at best and unrequited at worst, then I shall; my love for Yoh runs deep enough.

I put down my bottle of Coke; I had finished it long ago but clutched it still, fantasizing that the ridges upon the glass were the scars on Yoh's bicep…I pick up a portrait from the coffee table, handsomely framed in a filigreed gold-plated frame, with a beauty and grace surpassed only by the photograph within its boundaries. I imagine myself materializing on the other side of the glass, feeling the gentle bristle of his pointy hair, but could not. I merely gaze longingly into the picture, and the youngest Asakura stares back at me with relaxed, almost lazy eyes, and upon his lips shines a casual grin.

I press the photograph tightly to my bosom, feeling the frosty glass warm against my heart. "Please…come home safely, Yoh." My breath obscures the portrait with fog, but I close my eyes and feel my lips press upon the blurry glass, and, before I can feel bashful about the ridiculousness of kissing an inanimate object, the picture returns to the coffee table, signed with lipstick, a token of love that only I and Yoh's picture can ever know about.

It will have to do, for now…

_Continues in Kiss #13, "Mars"_


	14. Mars

Summary: Yoh takes the spotlight in this second part of the three-shot story arc. So what exactly _is_ taking him so long at the supermarket?

Written: 8/24 to 8/25/07. About 7 hours in all.

Rating: **T** for **coarse language** and **violence**.

Notes: This is part 2 of the current story arc. Part 1 is "Venus," Kiss #12. This one's from Yoh's point of view. I'm not really sure if I characterized him well here, but I'll revise this later if I get complaints about it. Right now it's 4 am and I'm off to bed, hehe…Hope you like it!

Mars

_Kiss #13_

I never understood why they make shopping baskets as uncomfortable to hold as possible. Now, while I stare blankly at the hundreds of cartons of eggs laid out in the freezer like some kind of chicken coffin, the bare metal wires for handles dig into the pad of my palm. It's a bit uncomfortable.

In my other hand is Anna's shopping list, and even if the ink on it weren't running, her famously illegible handwriting is smeared all over the scrap of paper, and I squint at the next unchecked item, which for all I can tell says "Organ Jesus."

I sigh into the coffin-like freezer before me, and my breath becomes visible, swirling around before coming to rest atop a dozen grade-A eggs. I look around, make sure no one else is present, and surreptitiously open the carton, making sure none of the eggs are cracked. Previous experience has taught me that few things can set Anna off like bringing home a carton of dripping, shattered eggs.

Now that I mention it, lots of things are apt to set Anna off. I really do try to please her, but for some reason or other it either goes unnoticed or fails to work. I know I'm a few noodles short of a bowl of ramen, but my heart is in the right place.

And so it goes…

I turn my attention to the shopping list again, squinting at "Organ Jesus" and trying to will it to become some food product available at an everyday supermarket. I frown, I rotate the paper, I play with the letters in my head, until it hits me.

"Orange juice?"

With a flourish of satisfaction, I unclip the pen from my pocket and scribble a check mark next to it. I pass a display of canned soup and cut through the cereal aisle to place a carton of Sixty Second Maid™ orange juice into my shopping basket.

In many ways the carton of juice reminds me of Anna; it's at its best when chilled, it's acerbic, but in a way that wakes you up.

I think of her all the time, in case you haven't noticed by now. And it's not just because I sting (sometimes literally) from the way she's harsh with me sometimes. Corny as it sounds, I can't help but think of her as my inspiration. I can say that I've learned more from a month of her tutoring than I ever will from my formal education. I surprise myself now, remembering vocabulary words that no other teacher could ever have made stick. Fear may not be a widely accepted pedagogical tool ("pedagogical," now there's a classic thousand-yen word, thanks, Anna), but hey, I can't argue with the results. And let's be perfectly honest; if it weren't for the fear she strikes into my heart, I never would've gotten my ass in gear in preparation for the Shaman Fight.

No amount of preparation, however, mental or physical, could improve my chances of getting through Anna's shopping list any faster. I focus my attention on the next item on the list, which, as far as I can determine, is "Corn," followed by what really looks like a swear word.

"Next time, Anna tells me what to get, and I write it down," I promise to myself. "Now, Corn…Freaks? Flocks? Flecks? Oh! Flakes!"

The shopping always unfolds this way, something of a game. The list is cryptic, and I search within myself to find the solution. Luckily, I'm accustomed to such things. God knows that figuring out Anna's mood is a puzzle far tougher than any crossword I'll ever see. She just stares at you with those slits for eyes, and you feel your insides turning to blocks of ice, organ by organ, and you don't know whether next she'll hug you or throttle you. Usually the latter, in my personal experience.

It's partly because Anna is always so emotionally numb and distant that I feel so nervous around her. I'm much more comfortable dealing with people who visibly become angry, than with people who think a freezing glare is the facial equivalent of a little black dress. I'm pretty good at defusing anger; it's one of the perks of being naturally laid back, as it tends to be contagious. But Anna's anger is like a stealth bomber. You see its shadow and you don't quite know what to do. Sometimes it's just passing overhead, other times it drops its payload on your head, but in either case it continues to fly on, unchanged, unwavering.

And speaking of little black dresses, I think her fashion echoes her personality. Always the conservative outfit, so passé, so predictable, yet that is its greatest strength. Emotional constipation matched in clothing that also betrays absolutely no feelings whatsoever. Happy occasion? Black dress. Personal tragedy? Black dress. Hell, when the day comes for us to exchange vows, she'll probably put on that black dress, glare at the best man, glare at the priest, glare at me and utter a bone-chilling "I do."

Now that is a topic I don't think about often. It's hard for me to believe I'm engaged. I'm probably the least likely candidate for marriage, period, much less at my age. Sure, I know how to cook and do laundry, all that good stuff. But frankly, marriage doesn't seem like it would suit me well. I don't have a fear of commitment per se, but I think being cuffed to the old ball and chain would severely curtail my leisure time, and for a slacker like me, leisure time is oxygen. Anna would suffocate me figuratively (she already does literally, after all). And then there is the pressing issue of love.

Does she or doesn't she?

And equally important—do I or don't I?

I mean, I do, I think, but at the same time it's mostly guesswork on my part. As I've mentioned, she's not exactly the most emotionally expressive girl I know, and when she does show emotion, it's usually anger, more specifically anger that's directed at me. And every so often I can see something in her—the eyes that soften almost imperceptibly, the arms that uncross from her chest, the glare that's replaced by sort of an uncertain grimace. Is it pity, is it me reading too much into meaningless nervous tics, or is it something approaching love?

Nonetheless, her cold reception, if anything, spurs me on. Sort of like the girl who plays hard to get. I have to say it's pretty discouraging to see most of my efforts go unnoticed, though.

I've got an ace up my sleeve, actually. For the entire last week I've been using my spare time to put together a little surprise for her. I put it in a nice envelope and slid it under her pillow this morning. Maybe she'll notice it…

I, meanwhile, notice that I've advanced to the cashier in the check-out line. I recognize her; my classmate Megumi seems to always be on duty when it comes time to go grocery shopping. She gives a little nod as she sees me, beginning to scan bar codes. "How's it going, Yoh?"

I wonder if I look distraught from mulling over Anna for so long. "Huh? Oh, hey, Megumi, I'm all right, I guess…How are you?"

The price scanner gives a malfunctioning squeal; she frowns and punches in a code manually with the ten-key pad. "Fine, thanks. You know, if I may be so bold…you don't _look_ all right."

"Really?" I look at my reflection and start playing with my hair, jostling my headphones a bit. I play with my shirt collar. I shift my necklace a little to the right. "Is that better?"

Megumi rolls her eyes. "Yoh, you're so cute. I see why Anna is so possessive of you..."

"Er…" I feel myself blushing slightly, but she notices something else…

"Oh, is that what's on your mind? Troubles with Anna?"

I sigh deeply, feeling my lungs deflate like punctured balloons. "Something like that, yeah."

She gives a nervous glance around. I'm the last customer in line, and her supervisor isn't nearby, so she slows her pace dramatically, deliberately scanning each item, weighing the produce as though it's solid gold and the slightest mistake will bankrupt the store. "Well…talk to me, Yoh. You're always so quiet in school. Or napping."

I give a little smirk at her gentle jab. "Anna…well, she…"

"Come on, I don't have all day. I'm almost halfway done ringing you up."

"I…" Out of the corner of my eye I see a lady trying to make up her mind which checkout to go to. It forces my hand…or at least my voice. "All right. Does Anna ever talk about…guys when she's around you?"

I thought I asked the question smoothly, but Megumi broke into a coy grin, and with her free hand she pointed at me like a kid might at a feces-throwing monkey. "You're worried that your fiancée doesn't love you!"

"So what if I am?" Oops. The words just kind of escaped me before I could think. Megumi gave a giggle, complete with head bobs.

"Well, I'd say half of Class B knows that Anna cares for you."

My eyes widen involuntarily. "Why's that?"

"They've all faced the wrath of Anna's famous left. Yuko made a crack once in front of Anna. She said, if stupidity was cabbage, you'd be a family-size _okonomiyaki_. And Anna put down her pen, stood up and"—Megumi slams her palm against the countertop, narrowly missing my carton of eggs—"and then Kentaro asked her, why are you hitched to some lazy loser like Yoh, and Kentaro's a big guy, you know him, but Anna just glared at him, reared back and smacked him full on the face. He flew five feet, I swear!"

"Wow…so…" This new information is certainly food for thought. I think I may have some time to ponder its implications, but Megumi's already brimming with new insights. She's a very talkative girl, really.

"I'd watch your back if I were you. I mean, I hear the guys talking about it, like, every day." She hasn't scanned anything in a full minute, and she suddenly remembers she's on company time. The carton of orange juice appears in her hand as she continues, "I agree with them. I'm jealous of Anna's looks, and a lot of guys go for the hard-to-get attitude, you know?"

See? Megumi thinks so too. I'm not stupid! Not this time, anyway. Shut up.

"But a lot of them feel that you're…well, you don't _appreciate_ Anna in the ways they can."

Before I can realize that my hands have balled up at my sides, and before I feel the rush of anger choking my brain, I blurt out, "That's ridiculous! Anna's difficult sometimes, but I love her!"

There is absolute silence. I can hear the pulse ringing in my ears, and I feel the distinct heat of blushing in my cheeks. Megumi looks a bit ruffled, but she recovers, nods, and begins to package my groceries. "I know you do, Yoh. Just watch yourself out there. Not everyone has the respect they should have for you. Whenever a girl's involved, nothing is too dangerous."

I simply nod as I slide a few bills across the counter. The change jingles in my pockets as I clasp my fingers around the plastic bag handles. "See you at school, Megumi."

"Stay safe, Yoh."

Now I can't help but be a little paranoid. My eyes shift between the long shadows in the supermarket parking lot. It's nice to know that Anna stands up for me at school in ways I didn't even know about until now, but Megumi raises a distressing point. A skinny kid like me is pretty physically weak, after all, and without Harusame in my hand or Amidamaru behind me, I'm apt to get my skull bashed in by a jealous classmate off campus…

I should reveal, at this time, that I left my sword in my room back at the En Inn. And my spirit ally is probably off swapping war stories with Tokagero somewhere. In any case, neither of them is accompanying me at this moment.

It's interesting to note, also, that at this very second, I'm hurtling through the air like a sack of potatoes, and a scrawny one at that. My flight seems to unfold in slow motion, the way it does in any action movie worth its salt. I feel, from fingertips that seem disconnected from the rest of my body, the packages slipping from my grasp; I feel my airborne body somersault, and I careen forward with the world around me strangely blurred and upside-down. Sometime around then I flail my arms wildly, as though trying to grasp the world by its handles and turn it right-side-up. Then, as the ground falls up to me, a final thought enters my mind, replacing _This is going to hurt like a bitch_:

_What the hell just happened?!_

Time reverts to its usual pace, and I roll over with milliseconds to spare. Having been flung like a ragdoll numerous times in my career as Shaman King contender, I know how to cushion my falls. I tumble into a concrete wall, sprawled on my back, but spring back to my feet by kicking off the gravelly floor.

The head of an elongated shadow mixes with the viscous, clear, yellow-polka-dotted puddle a few feet in front of me. _The eggs! Anna's going to kill me._ Bits of sugar-coated confetti drift past me as the wind blows through my badly battered box of corn flakes. A crisp crunch not unlike the snapping of a fresh twig echoes down the alley as a black boot stomps my bunch of celery.

I look up from the boot and swallow hard. And when I say look _up_, I mean it. The waistline of his worn jeans is about level with the bottom of my ribcage. To see the collar of his extra-large T-shirt (which, I might add, doesn't look at all baggy), I already have to crane my neck upwards slightly. His face looks familiar, but then again, all obscenely muscular people tend to look the same to me. I deduce that this behemoth is solely responsible for the impromptu acrobatic act I just performed, but any resentment I feel over this is silenced by his bulk. What I don't know is why he felt so inclined to send me catapulting through the air.

I figure, as far as I can tell at least, that I'm not bleeding or crippled yet, so I try to play it cool. It's one of my strengths, anyway. "Nice distance, but you're gonna lose some points. I didn't stick the landing."

From about a foot above me, he sneers. And I mean he _sneers_. When I try, it looks like I've got something stuck between my teeth; on the other hand, he looks truly menacing. Or even more so, I should say. "I don't know what's funnier. You, or the comically large putty knife they're going to need to scrape you off the sidewalk once we're through."

A smart joke. Just my luck to run into the one thug this side of Tokyo with brains _and_ brawn. I'm outclassed both physically and mentally. It doesn't look like the play-it-cool approach is going to make much headway, but I take one last stab at it. "Actually, it happened to my friend. The putty knife was exactly seventy-eight and three-quarter inches long. Now you know."

I thought it was pretty witty, but unless my assailant expresses his laughter by grabbing people's shoulders with a death grip, he didn't find it very humorous at all. "I'll cut the crap, Asakura. Anna's hot. And for some reason she likes you instead of tough guys like me. But I'm thinking, maybe your fiancée will realize what a helpless loser you are if, say, you don't make it home tonight. Or, for that matter, ever."

Let this be a lesson to you: It's always about a girl. Believe it.

I'm starting to realize, with the viselike hand grinding my shoulder to bone meal, that it might not be the best time for bravado. It's also dawning on me that, although my Shaman training has left me in pretty decent physical shape, my little muscles are only going to result in needing slightly larger than a 78¾-inch putty knife to remove me from the pavement…

So I do what anybody would in my position. I play for time. Delaying the inevitable always works in the movies, so why not? "Don't waste your time beating me up. It's not going to work. Anna's just going to visit me in the hospital, nothing will change. I'll never hear the end of it, but she loves me. That's just the way it is."

Speaking those words makes me feel strange. I just made them up on the spot, hoping to buy my body another minute of wonderful, non-pulverized existence, but for some reason they just felt right coming off my tongue, as though they were more true than I had ever realized before…

"You don't think I thought of that already?" His voice snaps me out of my thoughts. It's a really distinctive one, educated but also coarse and intimidating, and I know I've heard it before.

I am sorely tempted to answer "No," but my desire to avoid becoming a Yohburger restrains me.

"Ah yes, Anna is as good as mine. I'm sure you're not that upset. Certainly you understand why this was necessary…"

At those words I feel the hairs on the back of my neck bristle. By "this," I assume he's referring to a punch, or kick, or some combination of the two, but instead, he releases the death grip on my shoulder and reaches into his back pocket. Instinctively, I see this as a lowering of his guard. I feel adrenaline course through my veins, and I feel almost like some kind of hero from a popular anime! "Anna," I think, "remember when you slapped Kentaro for me? It's my turn."

My fist catches him just beneath his jaw. The satisfying crack of teeth gnashing together fills the air, and tiny droplets of spittle and blood spew from the corners of his taut mouth. His eyes close and blur as his head recoils. For a brief moment I think maybe the shadowboxing Anna makes me do twice a week has paid dividends…

Nothing. Not even a soft grunt of discomfort, and the giant is reoriented. I hear his mocking laughter, and then I discover that the phrase "knock the wind out of" isn't just a figure of speech.

There are no other words that can better describe this phenomenon. Blow up a paper bag and imagine it's one of your lungs. Then kick it as hard as you can. And multiply that by, oh, about 16.3. In that one instant when his steel-toed boot meets my ribs, I feel instantly winded, and I choke and sputter. Not to mention my back slamming the wall afterwards. I could've done without that part too.

I'm not going to make it sound heroic. I'm crumpled on the gritty alley floor. It seems that when I decided to pay back Anna's debt, I forgot one minor detail. Guys aren't supposed to hit girls. I, on the other hand, am protected by no such unwritten rule.

I push myself off the ground. Nothing really hurts yet, although I know it's only a matter of time before the rush wears off and my ribs start feeling like ground beef. I still have no idea how I'm going to take this golem of a classmate down, so I anchor my left leg and throttle my right at him. I may as well have kicked the wall instead; it probably would have hurt my foot less.

There is sudden warmth dripping down my upper lip and onto my chin, and I know even before my curious finger comes away coated with blood that I've been punched in the face. It's scary how impervious the human body becomes to pain when you're in mortal danger. My vision, though, has taken a turn for the worse. My adversary splits in two, and both images are advancing on me now, two fists rearing back, and I dive in the nick of time. I look up, and the second image changes.

It is Anna.

She is facing me, watching my bloodied and battered figure. She sees me take a knee to the gut, emotionless, as my body hurls, doubled over, backwards. I take another cheap shot to the face, and her slightly pouty lips seem to insult me even as they remain shut. Pain begins to erupt through my flesh and dig into my bones, and I know I can only take so much more of this. A snap kick to the chest decks me, and as I collapse onto my back I see Anna's eyes narrow, glaring at me mercilessly…

I stumble to my feet, blind with one final jolt of adrenaline. I'm vaguely aware that I'm screaming something and running forward, but my field of vision is washed out. "FOR ANNA!!!" is my battle cry, and I feel my fists impacting flesh, digging in, with strength that certainly wasn't mine. My legs join in without me even thinking to, and soon I cannot think at all, my mind takes on a life of its own, and Anna draws closer, wearing a beautiful smile. She whispers, "See? We're so much stronger together," and corny music starts playing in the background, and she makes some kind of comment about my heroism, followed by a passionate kiss that floods my lips with warmth and takes away all the bruises and lacerations and bleeding, then cut to credits…

I really am a hopeless romantic sometimes. But slowly the adrenaline rush subsides and I realize there are no end credits, there is no fanfare, and there certainly is no Anna. There's just a bunch of ruined groceries and a big guy facedown in a puddle of raw egg whites. The warmth on my lips isn't from the kiss I wish had been real. It's just blood, still dripping from my busted nose.

"Just another day in the life. Now for the really painful part, getting chewed out by Anna."

On my way out of the alley, I spot the object that he had pulled out of his pocket just before I got pummeled. I turn it over in my hands and open it. It's his wallet.

"What was it? 'I'm sure you see why this was necessary' or something like that? It's just a wallet…" I mutter to myself, my voice sounding oddly stuffy from my bloody nose. I don't understand; there's nothing out of the ordinary in it except for an envelope that looks oddly familiar…

_To be concluded in Kiss #14, "Eclipse"_


	15. Eclipse

Written: From 8/26 to 8/29/07. About 6 hours in all.

Rating: **M** for **strong language,** **highly suggestive themes** **and dialogue**, and some **sexual content**. I wanted very badly to make this story conform to the Teen content guidelines, but I could not bear to censor the story; it would have compromised the effect of the conclusion too much. You've been warned.

Notes: So here's the conclusion to the story arc that began with Kiss #12. It's gritty but satisfying in my opinion, and I think it's a fitting ending to the three-shot. I really hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Wasn't easy to do, and I'm sure there's a rough spot here and there, so please review!

Eclipse

_Kiss #14_

Night had blanketed the scene nearly an hour ago, but still Anna sat in the darkness, holding a sheet of paper creased twice horizontally. She still held it in her ghostly pale fingers despite the fact that it was too dark to read anymore, not that she needed it to refresh her memory. Its words seemed permanently etched into her gray matter, and she held the sheet only out of inertia and disbelief. Then, almost against her will, she squinted at the words again, trying to find some out-of-place word, some proof that it was a joke, a forgery, a trick of the light, but only intensifying her grief when she failed…

Less than half a mile away, the shadowy figure of Yoh hobbled down the dim sidewalk, periodically mopping blood from his upper lip or clutching at the throbbing wounds that peppered his body. His collared white shirt had lost a few buttons and threads, but gained an unsettling assortment of dull red stains and a couple of choice boot prints. Were the lighting better, passersby would have seen all of this, plus the grim, steely determination cemented in his eyes that belied his overwhelming sense of malaise. The resolute quality of his eyes was from residual adrenaline, not confidence, and he dreaded facing Anna in this state—two hours late, empty-handed, and visibly on the ass end of an ass-kicking.

Somewhere between them, a ghostly samurai drifted faster than the wind, floating above houses and streetlights, looking for the pair of orange headphones he had come to respect as his vassal. Amidamaru's sixth sense was better than most spirits', and he had sensed a disturbance from his master not too long ago. Frantically his form darted from rooftop to rooftop, squinting in the twilight for that tangerine flash to show itself. He spotted it, but stopped himself from impulsively making his presence known.

Something wasn't quite right.

Amidamaru took in the disheveled, oddly mussed appearance of Yoh's hairdo, but as his glances drifted lower he grew increasingly alarmed. There was definitely a loping, injured appearance to his strides, and he was reasonably sure that both of his knees were poking out of his tattered olive-green pants. And it had certainly not been raining, so the dark droplets that stained his shirt had to be—

"Yoh-dono!" beseeched Amidamaru, who bent over so sharply that his ghostly visage was nearly brushing the sidewalk. "Forgive me, Lord Yoh, I began searching for you as soon as I sensed something was amiss—"

Yoh turned around, and his hardened gaze softened to a cordial look. He gave something that looked halfway between a broad smile and an excruciating wince. "Hey, Amidamaru. Just goes to show how important you are to me, huh?" he asked, sweeping his hand before himself. The samurai recoiled when he saw the crimson oozing from his nostrils and the blackness that was engulfing his left eye socket. He bowed lower still, so that the hairs of his stylish topknot disappeared into the concrete.

"I have failed you, Yoh-dono."

But Yoh gave a carefree smile that wiped the defeated expression off Amidamaru's face. "You could never fail me. How many times have you saved me? I'm pretty sure you're allowed to let me get a little abused now and then."

"I owe you far more than the information I am about to relay," he said conspiratorially, cupping an ethereal hand to one side of his mouth, "but I warn you: Anna-san is not happy with you at the moment. Choose your words carefully."

Yoh just shrugged, but his casual gesture triggered a wave of pain through his torso. "What else is new?" he asked sarcastically. "I'm sure it'll work out. I don't think you should be around to see this…"

Amidamaru gave a slight bow and vanished; they had arrived at the gates to the En Inn, where shadows ominously swayed upon the walkway leading to the entrance. Yoh felt rather much like a condemned criminal leading a procession to the gallows; he even hung his neck slightly, as though expecting the floor beneath his wobbly feet to dematerialize at any moment, tauting an invisible rope around his windpipe…

A bloodstained hand coiled weakly around the front door; Yoh knew it would be useless to call out to Anna, and swung the door open meekly. He saw a figure smartly dressed in black, sitting on a stool that faced the entrance, holding a sheet of creased paper. It uncrossed its legs and drew its head back slightly, and even in the utter darkness Yoh could see the arctic eyes glistening, could feel vitriolic icicles stabbing his own eyeballs…

"Where are the groceries?" Anna's cutting query echoed off the spartan walls, and it sent quivers up his spine. The sound had ceased but he heard it still in his mind, and he knew her cold fury wasn't about the missing plastic bags he had left behind in the alleyway.

"No, you don't have them. But you did bring me a present." Her gaze shifted to the black rectangle Yoh was twirling between his left thumb and forefinger. "If it's anything like the present you left me this morning, then you can shove it."

This last comment left Yoh completely at sea. With a frown, as though illuminating the room would help clear the confusion in his brain, he flicked the light switch, squinting as the yellow flood dilated his pupils. For a brief second he thought Anna's silent, enraged expression had given a gasp when she saw, highlighted in new brightness, the extent of the injuries decorating his body, but it was gone before he could blink.

"Although I suppose I am slightly impressed," said Anna as she stood up and took two long strides towards Yoh, "that you were apparently paying attention when we learned about poetry. Still, if this is your idea of a joke, then your sense of humor is even worse than your iambic pentameter."

Anna's outburst was the impetus for Yoh's brain to finally put the pieces together. _Surely you see why this was necessary_…the familiar-looking envelope he had found in the wallet…which had been, or so he thought, left under Anna's pillow that morning…except it wasn't…and the sheet of paper in Anna's enraged hands… "No! Anna, here—"

She gave an exasperated start. "You mug some guy at the supermarket and come home half-dead without anything to cook for dinner, _and _you leave me this stupid-ass poem, and _then_ you think you can _bribe_ me with your ill-gotten money and I'll suddenly jump on you and lick your goddamn wounds?"

Anna froze, a supremely furious expression stenciled on her visage, the folded sheet of paper an inch from Yoh's nose, her free fist clenched and devoid of color. Yoh likewise stood stock still, his bloodied mouth agape, swallowing up his own shallow, scared breaths, wishing he knew what to do. Suddenly he saw Anna's lips part slightly, and he felt an angry, hot warmth slowly dripping down the bridge of his nose.

"Fuck your poem," she hissed as the spittle wended down his stunned face. "Fuck what you think of me. And…"

Yoh was still rooted to the spot, his mind crammed full of things he knew he should say before Anna finished her sentence, any one of them, to stave off the despair that was quickly ensnaring his heart, but it was too late, his soul had already given up, and he began to feel moisture stinging at the corners of his eyes, joining the wet spot in the middle as they trickled down his scraped cheeks. The salt stung his lacerated skin, but not nearly as much as the end of Anna's sentence, which seemed to rend his entire chest in two:

"…Fuck you, Yoh."

There was nothing, absolutely nothing, that Yoh wouldn't have done at that instant to make those words ring false to his ears. He gladly would have unsheathed Harusame and plunged its blade into his devastated heart, if it meant he knew he was loved even as the last of his lifeblood spurted out of the gash. But he knew from the way Anna turned her back on him then, in an icy whirlwind of black, gold and red, that she meant what she had said.

The woman Yoh loved despised him, and he had never felt more alone than he did then, not three feet away from her. He felt his despondent heart beating feebly, begrudgingly, felt himself breathing in shuddering, irregular gasps, felt the will to live escaping from his pores. But he thought he might yet die from the despair that drowned him now, a helpless blight that refused to grant his besieged mind any refuge from dwelling upon the love that had been cruelly stolen from him. Free will vacated his thoughts and the wretchedness took over. Although her back was still turned to him, he could see nothing but Anna's face, fractured, as though from the viewpoint of a bug's eye, every copy sneering, glaring, cold and impassive, and now he saw hundreds of faces of Anna, all spitting upon him, endlessly looping. _Is this what it's like to be dead? No, death is better, there's no feeling at all…_

Yoh did not recall ever moving, but he found himself upstairs in the bathroom, no longer carrying the wallet, and his reflection made such an impression on him that his mind cleared for a second. The extent of his injuries didn't shock him much, but he saw the shiny streaks on his face where he had been crying. The sight of them seemed to grant him permission to stop biting his lip and bottling in his emotions. _That's what Anna would do…oh, Anna…Anna…_

Downstairs, Anna didn't hear Yoh's silent weeping, nor did she hear the soft pitter-patter of hot tears dripping onto tile. The hatred coursing through her veins made her temporarily deaf and incapable of rational thought. She did not hear the bloodcurdling howl that pierced the walls of the inn at that moment, did not see the confetti of a thoroughly shredded sheet of paper cascading to the floor in mock celebration. A flushed, blotchy hand clasped around the wallet someone had left on the table. It certainly wasn't her hand that launched it across the room at a handsomely framed portrait on the mantel. The sound of glass shattering, as piercing as the crystal shards that now pockmarked the wood floor, served to temper Anna's fury somewhat. The whiteness that blanketed her field of vision darkened, and she could see thousands of bits of glass, some of them tinted mauve where her lipstick had stained the pane. Lying atop the bed of shards was Yoh's portrait. She couldn't bear favoring it with a second glance.

She saw the wallet at that moment, at the far end of the room, propped upside-down against the wall. Mostly to distance herself from Yoh's ruined picture, she stalked over to it, snatching it up roughly, so that a wad of paper money serpentined out of it. She kicked it and sent a shower of hundred-yen notes briefly into the air. _Pathetic_, she thought, _if he's going to get himself beaten to__ within__ an inch of his life, he could at least have mugged someone richer._

Taking a deep breath that made her diaphragm tingle, she sighed and sat before the table. Anna ran a finger down the thick pad of papers that remained in the compartment, and pulled them out. _Coupons. Business cards. Receipts. An envelope…What is it with guys and envelopes? Well, I'm not touching that thing with a ten-foot _bo _staff. Fool me once, shame on you…_

She ruffled the plastic cards that lined both sides of the leather billfold with her thumb, tumbling them onto the countertop. _Library card, bus pass, a bunch of hotel keycards. Either this guy travels an awful lot, or he's a pervert…_A condom slid out of the wallet then, in a battered, wrinkled pouch, to which Anna made a revolted noise. _I knew it. Guys are all alike. At least by the looks of this thing, he hasn't had a chance to use __one__ in at least several months…__And a school ID_…The photograph was blurry and about the size of her thumbnail, but she squinted at it; somehow it seemed slightly familiar. She turned the scuffed card towards the light and frowned at the _kanji_ on its surface. "Shinra Private Academy, sophomore…"

She almost dropped the card. _Yoh mugged someone in _our class_?! What in God's name is wrong with that kid? Shit, I have enough popularity problems without being known as the psychotic __kid's__ fiancée…_Her eyes narrowed as she attempted to discern the identity of the boy in the photograph, but it was hopeless. She turned her attention to the name beneath the picture—and nearly fell out of her chair.

_Yoh mugged Daisuke?! But why? He's gotta be two hundred pounds, easy. And you can tell he's poor, every day he brings a sandwich for lunch in the same oil-stained paper bag. He takes a bite out of it and, with his mouth still full, keeps telling me how Yoh's a lazy bum, that I need someone like Daisuke instead, and he flexes his arm, like I'm supposed to be impressed that he can stand there for hours doing curls or whatever. God, what a douche. One of the only people I dislike more than Yoh._

_But wait…_

_Did Yoh know__ about all this_

_No, he can't have…was just random chance, besides, even a big guy like Daisuke wouldn't be a match for Yoh, not when he's got__ Amidamaru in__ Harusame—_

As if in response to her thoughts, the long velvet pouch that always sheathed Harusame appeared at the corner of her eye, tied shut at the top, the outline of the _katana_ clearly visible through its folds. It had been there all evening while Yoh had been at the supermarket…

_Something just doesn't add up! Why would Yoh write something so repugnant to me on the same day he decides to teach Daisuke a lesson? Does he hate me, is this all just remarkable coincidence, or…_

Her eyes involuntarily drifted to the envelope, folded over at both ends from where it had been crammed into Daisuke's wallet. It was then she noticed its similarity to the one she had discovered not two hours ago when she made the beds out of boredom. And the handwriting on it was distinctly the barely legible scrawl she had grown to begrudgingly appreciate as Yoh's.

_Could it be…I didn't think Daisuke had the brains to do something that devious, but then again, Yoh surprises me sometimes…_

With trembling fingertips Anna tore open the envelope's flap, withdrawing from it a single sheet of cotton paper. In handwriting that was much nicer than she had expected, yet still familiarly slanted and curvaceous, she read:

--

_Atop Funbari Hill in Tokyo_

_There is an Inn where you and I both go_

_Within its walls, we sleep, we drink, we eat_

_And from the windows, watch cars on the street._

_--_

_Your gaze __moves__ from the pane and on to me,_

_But without reason, none that I can see._

_I wonder why you haven't touched your food;_

_I hope you're not in one of your bad moods._

_--_

_Your eyes don't waver; still you stare in mine,_

_My breath is short; in truth, your eyes do shine._

_Without a word, a grin sprouts on your lips,_

_Inside my chest, I feel my heartbeat skip._

_--_

_Our meal proceeds without another hitch,_

_And while others say that you're a bitch,_

_That couldn't be more distant from the truth._

_I'd never think of being so uncouth;_

_--_

_In fact, I treasure smiles from you more dear_

_Since I don't know the way to make one appear._

_I wish you'd do it more, indeed, it's true,_

_So I thought this time to try something new._

_--_

_Will this put a smile on your face?_

_I knew I shouldn't have tried this in the first place._

_But I shall always try my best for you,_

_To see that smile, as fresh as morning dew…_

_--_

_I'm tired now, these rhymes have all been done,_

_I've energy for more, __but barely. J__ust this one:_

_As now,__ I feel as though I'm out of mana_

_It matters not, because I love you, Anna._

_--_

A foreign sensation of weightlessness seized Anna's chest, and she saw butterflies flitting in her field of vision as an onslaught of blood rushed to her head. Warmth such that she had never come close to experiencing before engulfed her every cell, and it showed upon her face. There was a definite radiance to Anna in that moment, as she closed her enraptured, watery eyes and embraced the sheet of cotton paper, but she knew what she truly wanted to hold in her arms that very second…

Without caring, or even pondering, that the occupant of the bathroom was probably midway into a much-needed shower, Anna charged the door. It flew open without resistance, and steam billowed out into the hallway. Through the sticky veil of mist she stepped toward where she knew the shower curtain was, blinded by the thick steam as well as the passion that was pounding at the sinews of her heart, begging for release. She barely noticed her foot snag something warm…

The cascading hot water in the shower concealed the fact that Yoh was sitting on the bare floor next to the sink. Loud splashes of water muffled his crying, the towel snaked in his lap occasionally absorbing a tear. He opened his puffy eyes and his head nearly collided with the sink behind him. "A-Anna...I…"

Anna stifled a gasp. As she saw Yoh's face up close, her heart sped ever faster. Both of his eyes were swollen with sorrow; the left one was additionally burdened from a nicely progressing shiner. Trellises of vermillion traced their way down his lips onto his chin where blood had coagulated.

"Yoh. I said a lot of stupid things. I was wrong. I'm sorry."

The words were succinct and spoken without betraying any emotion—classic Anna. But her manner of speech was betrayed by her wide, tearing eyes and the lock of black hair she was straightening with her fingers. She gently placed her hands at either side of Yoh's torso, feeling his fine arm hairs tickling her palms as she helped him to his feet. Perhaps it was the steam, or maybe Anna's unbridled passion, but she failed to notice Yoh's towel had been lost on the floor…

"But I guess I was right about one thing." She ran her hand beneath the showerhead and dabbed at the dried blood on his face with moist fingertips. "You were paying attention when they taught us about poetry." Anna's hands slid down Yoh's sides, taking up residence upon his slick back, and he found himself mimicking her, worrying that his skin would blister from the heat she radiated…

Yoh still had not spoken a word. He had simply stared at Anna's face, matching her rarefied affectionate expression with one of shock. He opened his mouth once more, this time certain that words of some sort would vocalize in his throat, but the surprise of her sudden change of heart was too much. He felt the caked blood on his face wash away at her marvelously warm, gentle touch, and now Anna closed her eyes, and he closed his, still thinking of words to say as her tongue lapped at the dried salty rivulets that had trickled from his tear ducts…

Inspiration finally struck him then, as the blood within him neared the boiling point. He felt preternaturally hot, and he attributed it neither to the steam that suffused the room, nor to the passionate tongue that, even now, was lapping up his sorrow. The heat was something else—the manifestation of something that both he and Anna had known and felt furtively for the longest time. His voice was hoarse but he finally knew what to say. He whispered, "Anna…I love—"

"I know," she whispered back. And at that moment Anna's tongue glided across from his cheek to dance upon his lips. He reflexively opened his, and immediately felt as though the roof of his mouth was roasting over a campfire. A pure heat flooded his mouth, one that was both unbearable yet impossible to live without, and as he felt the coolness of her tongue he gasped slightly in relief but moaned softly for more. She obliged him willingly, and Anna could feel, could taste, the longing in Yoh's mouth just as surely as he could taste the contrition in hers. Her top clung to her chest and back, but Yoh, unable to see through the shroud of steam, contented himself with feeling her contours against his bare chest. She felt his every scar upon his shoulders, down the backs of his arms, and then she felt something else, too, a hardness that pressed and pulsed against her abdomen…

They drew their faces back slightly and exchanged meaningful looks. Yoh saw the passion in her eyes, certainly, as she groped around the sink, picking up a heavily creased, hermetically sealed packet from off the top of the poem. But he saw, beneath the bravado she was demonstrating as she tore the packet open with her teeth, something intermingled with the passion…uncertainty…fear…

The heat that crawled over Yoh's skin dissipated almost immediately as he detected the hesitance in her eyes. He shook his head gently. "No. I don't think you're…we're ready."

The uncertainty and fear vanished from her expression. She looked down into the cleft of Yoh's collarbone, and she nestled her head in the warm crook of his neck. His hand began combing her flaxen hair as he continued, "Anna, there's no point in _making_ love when we're both already _in_ love."

It was Anna's turn to grope for words that would not come. They exchanged another set of looks, and neither one looked apprehensive this time, although both pairs of eyes still smoldered with passion…She slowly began to kneel before Yoh, and reached out into the billowing steam, nervous, but at the same time absolutely certain of what she was going to do. Yoh gave a little gasp of surprise but, this time, did not stop her as she clasped her hand around her target and gave her lips a preparatory lick…

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The "true" ending to this story can be found by going to my author page and reading the last chapter of my story, "When Worlds Collide." (I'm not allowed to include a link here; that's why you'll have to do a little digging on your own to find it.)

Be advised it's strictly M-rated, enough so for me to not include it here...If you do read it, let me know what you think!


	16. Immaculate

Summary: Yoh thinks Anna's just a bit under the weather. But if that's the case, why's she being so recalcitrant about it? Meanwhile Yoh's friend formulates his _own_ idea as to why Anna's really sick…

Written: In about 5 hours on 9/4/07.

Rating: **T** for **suggestive themes**, **romance** and **mild language**.

Special Thanks: To **Smart Angel** for the story suggestion. If _you _have a plot you'd like to see done, let me know and your name could be here in the next story!

Notes: I know this one took awhile to write; I apologize, but I've been busy. Nonetheless I hope you like it, and feel free to make suggestions!

Immaculate

_Kiss #15_

Yoh couldn't quite put his finger on it as he stood in the kitchen that morning, but something was definitely off kilter. Like the non-stick spray he had just applied to his frying pan, it was intangible and invisible, but undeniably there. As he peeled strips of cold bacon from the plastic pack and slapped them onto the griddle, he gave a cursory glance over his shoulder, and felt himself inch closer to pinning down why that morning felt so odd. "Anna?"

No response came. _My imagination again…or maybe one of the overactive poltergeists in this place. One of these days I'll take care of their unfinished business and maybe I can live in peace._

Something else, however, was gnawing away at the back of his mind, that had nothing to do with the haunts, but rather concerned another resident of the En Inn who was still alive. He paid it no mind, though, and soon the strips of bacon were crackling. A pair of sunny-side-up eggs later, he had nearly forgotten the indescribable malaise he had felt minutes ago…

As he cracked an egg against the countertop, though, he heard an awful sound reminiscent of a demon in the midst of an exorcism—a horrific, sickening retching noise that completely inundated Yoh's mind with its dissonance. He was vaguely aware that his hand was dripping with viscous raw egg white and bits of shell onto the floor, but he was too preoccupied to pay it any mind. "Anna!"

A plate in one hand and a glass of orange juice in the other, Yoh bounded up the stairs three at a time, but abruptly stopped before the door to his fiancée's room. He heard soft footsteps upon the wood floor, and a ruffling of the sheets; whatever had happened to her, he figured, she had recovered awfully quickly. _She had a nightmare and decided to use the __toilet__ since she was already up?_

With his hands both full, Yoh couldn't knock, so he called out. "Anna?"

He barely heard the response. "Come in, Yoh."

Yoh nearly dropped the plate when he kicked the door ajar and saw her. She was lying down upon the rumpled sheets, her slightly disheveled hair vaguely resembling a haystack, her chest bereft of its usual sky-blue beads, and instead of her trademark black top and skirt she sported a white evening gown that left very little to Yoh's imagination. He was more than willing to continue enjoying the view, but Anna's face precluded that option.

The glare that Yoh had all but come to expect after years of Anna's company was absent, and in its place was a decidedly queasy, unfocused countenance; her skin appeared somewhat more flushed than usual; and her hands were clasped upon her stomach, giving the appearance that she was trying to keep her organs from slipping out through her navel.

It didn't take long for him to realize that his nightmare hypothesis was incorrect. He knew he should do something, but _what _exactly eluded him. Even so, he hesitantly laid the breakfast tray at the foot of the bed and stood above Anna's form, gazing down at her torso from above and forcing himself with all his willpower to ignore the bare contours of flesh he could see through her all too loosely threaded garment. He saw her give a weak smile as he knelt upon the floor to whisper, "What's wrong, Anna?"

Anna's bleary eyes focused as they locked on to Yoh's concerned face. She swallowed, licked her lips and replied, more softly than Yoh, "I…just don't feel too well this morning."

Without thinking to, Yoh found his fingers combing Anna's mussed hair into their usual straight locks. "I'm sorry to hear that. Here, maybe…" He slid the tray forward from the foot of the bed, but Anna meekly shook her head. "No, Anna, you'll feel better once you've got some good food in you, trust me…"

Yoh clumped eggs onto the fork and snapped off a segment of crispy bacon, and he felt a chill of excitement as Anna acquiesced and opened her mouth, and his fingers grazed the bottom of her chin and then her lips…

"Thank you," Anna said, with somewhat more volume, once she took the glass of orange juice Yoh offered her.

"See? You feel better already!"

Yoh could have sworn he heard a note of hesitance, even the traces of an outright lie, in her reply, but he took her words at face value. "Y-yeah. I do." He felt relieved that Anna did indeed look healthier now, but he overlooked the fine wrinkles of worry at the corners of her eyes and the tips of her brow, the way her breaths were shallower than usual, the way she was trembling ever so slightly…

He stood up and brushed off his knees. Feeling strangely bold, he bent over slightly and whispered, "I'd better start my training, but I'm glad you're feeling better." Then, emboldened by Anna's lack of protest to his actions thus far, he bit back his nervousness and quickly grazed his lips against her forehead. He felt them tingle, but also noticed her skin felt clammy, almost nervous, about something…

Yoh was about to turn around, but he saw Anna's hand jerk quickly. _Damn it, shouldn't have pushed my luck_, he thought, and he winced slightly, anticipating the slap he knew was coming. But Anna's hand stopped way short of Yoh's face, instead gripping his wrist shakily. He felt the same clammy sensation from her hand and gave a slight start. "Yoh…I…"

"Yes?" Yoh turned to fully face her once more, his black bangs swaying slightly, framing his innocent eyes and concerned expression. He saw Anna's lips, barely holding back a torrent of words, and knew that the malaise he had felt earlier that morning would be explained in the next moment…

"I…just wanted to say thanks for…for caring, Yoh." Even if he hadn't noticed the way she sped through the last of her words, or the way she looked away abruptly as soon as she had finished, he still would have detected the lie.

"No…nothing you wouldn't have done for me, Anna." And with one final, almost disappointed but not insincere smile, he turned and left her staring after his back, wanting more than anything else to come clean, but fearing too much his reaction to the truth…

He left the gates of the inn mired in confusion. Why would Anna hide her sickness from him? He cared for her well-being more than anyone else, and hiding an illness would only hurt them both eventually. Buildings blurred at his sides as his pace quickened, as though expecting his speed to centrifuge out the uncertainty and deception and reveal the truth, but all he saw was a blur of stores and cars around him, and at the center, a streak of icy blue hair above a snowboard—

The figure gave an enthusiastic wave, and Yoh stopped dead in his tracks. Only one person in all of Japan would walk the streets in summer with a snowboard strapped to his back. "Horohoro!"

"Yo, Yoh," came the irreverent reply. "A bit warm for a jog, don't you think? Or…" His beady eyes widened as he concluded, "Anna's making you, huh?" A sound like a cracking whip slipped through his slender lips.

At the mention of his fiancée, Yoh gave an involuntary lurch. He recovered, trying to pass off his twinge as a cough, but his friend was too vigilant for such a ploy. "Is something going on between you two? I know how she can be sometimes…"

"No, it's just…" Yoh shifted his necklace nervously. "She was really sick this morning, and then she didn't want to talk about it."

Horohoro frowned. "Anna's headstrong. You should know that. She probably just doesn't want to make you think she's too weak to beat the sickness herself. The flu's been going around, by the way. I'd keep away from her for a few days, unless you want to catch it too…"

"I don't think it's the flu, though. It sounded like," Yoh recalled, hesitating slightly, "well, like she threw up, I guess, but no cough, no runny nose, no fever…"

"No idea, but if I were to venture a guess…" Horohoro looked deep in thought, but then he gave a scandalized gasp and wagged a finger at his friend. "You and Anna have been…naughty lately! ( 1 ) Well, no wonder she's sick…Congratulations, by the way!"

Yoh didn't feel the hearty slap on the back he had been bestowed. Instead, he looked at his snowboarding buddy with puzzled eyes. "Nothing to congratulate me for…I mean, you'll find that special someone soon, and then you can be naughty too…But what's that got to do with anything? You saying I gave her some kind of disease? That's impossible, I've only ever been with her…"

"No," Horohoro replied, looking—and sounding—slightly exasperated. "Don't worry about Anna's sickness. We Ainu explain it this way…the impurities in a woman's body must be purged before she can become a fit mother. That way, the child is born free of corruption. So—"

Yoh heard the words, but they imparted their meaning to him only slowly, but when they did, they hit him _hard_. He felt as though someone had just pulled the Earth out from under him, and he was falling ever faster, hurdling into an inky nothingness that would never cease, and he bellowed at last, "Anna…is _PREGNANT?!_"

"That…surprises you? I mean, yeah, you love each other, I get it, but that doesn't mean you can just hope for the best and skip the condom—"

"_BUT WE DIDN'T DO THAT!!_" Yoh's mind was deluged in thoughts and memories, and he saw nothing but a flood of white, just the way that it had been when he was in the shower with Anna not long ago…He remembered declining Anna's offer because they just weren't ready, they certainly hadn't done…what was necessary to create life…but then he recalled dimly what he had done with his fingers…and not washing them first, when they had come in contact with his—

And then the fog dissipated and Yoh was back on the sidewalk, seeing his friend through the same fingers that were now cupped around his face. Nothing he could have thought, much less spoken, could come close to expressing the emotions that were clawing at his chest, but finally he managed to speak.

"Oh man…I screwed up."

He felt a strong hand close upon his shoulder. "What's all this then?" Horohoro's usually brash voice was subdued, almost gentle. "Yoh, I said 'congratulations,' dammit, and I meant it. You'll be a great dad."

"But…" Yoh felt the distinct sensation that he was grasping at straws, both in the present conversation and in the bigger picture, of him, Anna, and their infant child… "Dude, I'm not even sixteen! _I'm_ still a kid and now I'm gonna have to _raise_ one?!"

"Yoh," and he felt a firm grip upon his wrists, forcing his hands to stop covering his anguished face. He could see his friend's sincere blue eyes now, and he blinked hard as he continued, "Seriously, you'll be awesome at it. Every kid in the neighborhood will want you as their dad. Laid-back and unshakable, but respected as an awesome role model!"

Yoh felt a hotness in his eyes. "I…Thanks a lot, Horohoro."

"Listen, I'll always be there if you don't think you can cut it on your own—Aw, quit that crying, you big sissy," he shot back shakily, wiping at his own eyes with the backs of his hands...

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Yoh knew he had been under considerable mental duress the entire morning, but now, as he returned home and peeked into the living room, he did a double-take and blinked, dumbfounded. Unless he was very much mistaken, and unless the revelations of the day really had rendered him temporarily insane, he could swear that Anna was sitting in her usual spot on the couch, with a bowl of vanilla ice cream cradled in her lap. Nothing unusual about that…except that in lieu of a spoon, she was holding in her slender fingers a particularly juicy, deep-green, ten-inch-long pickle. ( 2 )

He shook his head in utter disbelief as he saw a dollop of ice cream materialize at the tip of the gherkin, only to vanish with a crisp _crunch_ as Anna consumed both simultaneously.

_This is just too strange to be true. Maybe I'll wake up any minute now and everything will go back to normal, oh please…_

The bowl of ice cream clattered onto the floor as Yoh strode into the room, knowing, in spite of every shock he'd endured that day, exactly what to do next. Anna leapt to her feet and tried to kick the bowl under the table, but only managed to flip it over, spilling mushy ice cream and a half-eaten pickle onto the wood floor. She hopped with a gasp, but cleared her throat. "It's just, uh…for the North Beach Diet, you know, I've been gaining a little weight…"

"Well," said Yoh softly, and the words, unlike all the disjointed thoughts that rattled his brain up until that moment, rolled clearly and fluidly off his tongue, as though he had known all along he would need to speak these very words, "it's normal for you to gain a little weight when you're…"

And in one smooth motion, Yoh took a single stride to stand directly behind her and ran his hands beneath her nightgown until both came to rest gently upon her stomach. Slowly Anna craned her neck around, until it could rotate no further. He could just barely see her profile, a single eye that glimmered with nerves, half a pair of quivering lips that were parting now to speak…

"So…you know…?"

Yoh pressed his body against Anna's back; he didn't know whence the sudden warmth, the sudden calm and acceptance, had come, but somehow, holding her in his arms, he incontrovertibly knew everything would be all right. "I do."

"And…this is…you're not…?"

"What?" he asked rhetorically, feeling the silkiness of her blonde hair lapping against his cheek. "Upset? Afraid? Regretful? Anna, you're the strongest person I know, and alone you can do just about anything. But you're not alone."

She turned to face him; his hands migrated to the small of her back.

"You have me. You'll have me until, God forbid, you decide you don't want a screw-up like me around anymore. But together, there isn't a damn thing we can't do."

"Oh, Yoh, I…"

They had both closed their eyes, but the magnetism of passion drew their lips together flawlessly. Yoh could taste the bitterness of the pickle upon her tongue, but it was complemented by the sweet ice cream, and he whimsically mused that, in the same fashion, their child would be a similar blend, inheriting Mom's relentlessness counterbalanced by Dad's slack, and both of their love and compassion…His hands could almost palpably feel the new life that was, even as their kiss intensified, maturing within her womb, but Yoh could feel the maturation of something else, something that grew at that moment within them both: their love…

Yoh drew back his head slightly. He saw Anna's delicate eyes opening slightly, still narrowed with passion, saw her perky nose hovering above full, vibrant lips, and could not help himself: "Anna, our kid…is gonna be beautiful, just like you."

For once, Anna looked slightly abashed; it was cute. "Yoh…you're pretty easy on the eyes yourself."

As the minutes ticked by and neither Yoh nor Anna moved from each other's arms, the ice cream on the floor continued to melt unbeknownst to them, and a pool of immaculate white was oozing slowly to engulf the pickle, the sweetness conquering the bitterness drop by drop…

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( 1 ) _See Kiss #14, "Eclipse"_

( 2 ) During pregnancy, women sometimes get cravings for _very _strange food. I swear I'm not making this up, I saw it firsthand before my brother was born. Ask your mom about it if you want...


	17. Silver Screen Sweetness

Summary: Yoh gets more than he bargained for when Anna scores some free prizes in the mail…

Written: Into the morning of 9/12/07.

Rating: **T** for **coarse language**, **use of tobacco** and **romantic themes**.

Notes: It's funny how writer's block can suddenly ease up and let you write an entire story in just a few hours…That's how this piece came into existence. I hope you like it. It might be awhile before inspiration strikes me again…

Silver-Screen Sweetness

_Kiss #16_

The fingers that danced upon the alabaster envelope's edges were as elegantly deft and businesslike as the blade that skimmed upon its surface. With a barely audible rip, it gutted the top of the envelope, and a girlish scream resonated in the room.

"Ahhhh! Yoh!"

He shifted his inseparable headphones back and looked up. "Huh?"

"I can't believe it!" she gushed, waving the envelope up and down between two slender fingertips. "We won!"

Yoh's wide, wondering eyes were spacious with bewilderment. He repeated, "Huh?"

A slight sigh of exasperation escaped her, but it was lost in her continued excitement. "I didn't think we had a chance, but, oh Yoh, what a miracle!" Yoh realized no further explanation was coming, so he watched carefully as Anna drew out the envelope's contents, hoping to figure it out. Her excitement was contagious, and he watched breathlessly as a rectangle of paper slid onto the countertop, followed by another. _A check, maybe? Are our money troubles finally at an end? A million yen would really go a long way to securing our future…_

Her blue beads bounced off her chest as she leapt in the air. "Let's go! Start getting ready, Yoh, we've gotta see this right now!"

For good measure, Yoh gave a final "Huh?" and decided to settle the matter once and for all. He stood up, meandered to the countertop and squinted at the slips of paper. The hopes that had briefly welled in his chest were dashed as though Anna's blade had sliced them instead of the envelope.

"Oh, we just won a couple of movie tickets," Yoh realized, disappointment unmistakably dampening his tone.

"What?!" she demanded, as though he had admitted to cheating on her. "_Just_ movie tickets? I guess…He's _only_ my favorite actor, and this is _only_ supposed to be the best romantic comedy in years…Oh, what a piece of manhood he is—" Anna froze mid-sentence, her hands passionately clasped before her chest, her eyes mixed with desire and guilt, and embarrassment rushed deep red into her skin as her eyes darted over to her fiancé.

He rolled his eyes.

"What I meant to say," she tried, hastily scrambling to Yoh's side and placing a sincere hand upon his shoulder, "is that I've really wanted to see this movie, but, well, financially…I'm sure you'll enjoy it too, Yoh."

The reassurance of her hand upon his shoulder made him smile despite himself. "I don't care how lame the movie is, I'll enjoy it as long as we can watch it together."

She gave a little chuckle, but inwardly she blushed even more fiercely at his corny words. "Honestly, maybe you should write a movie script. You're certainly enough of a hopeless romantic for it."

As quickly as her hand had made his shoulder tingle, it was gone, instead picking up one of the movie tickets from the table. She headed upstairs to freshen up, leaving Yoh feeling oddly upbeat despite being condemned to watching a nauseating chick flick. He unrolled his shirt sleeves and buttoned up the front, even doing the cuffs, and he tugged at the wrinkles desperately. At the kitchen sink he washed his face, shaking beads of water out of his messy hair, and nervously rubbed his chin, though he knew he probably wouldn't need to shave for several days yet. Once he was satisfied with his hygiene, he waited for Anna to descend the stairs, but not for long…

The sight of her jammed his thought processes and flooded his brain with overwhelming emotions, some of them as unfamiliar as they were pleasurable…Anna had doffed her customary headgear, and her loose blond locks cascaded to the tops of her shoulders, just barely skirting the sides of her penetrating eyes. She wore a black top as usual, but its hems seemed somewhat less conservative than before; Yoh's stunned eyes involuntarily took in the teasing bits of cleavage that were visible at either side of the neck slit, and the silky, slender legs that seemed to meld with the high hem of her skirt…

"Anna…"

She hesitated on the last stair, finally realizing she had unwittingly garnered Yoh's undivided attention, but recovered and walked directly before him.

"Yes?"

Anna could see his Adam's apple bob as he took a dry swallow.

"You look…" _Beautiful. Stunning. Wonderful. _"…Erm, never mind."

Evidently the deep hue that Yoh's skin suddenly took on spoke the words he hadn't been able to, as Anna's features softened, and before he knew what was happening, one of his hands was holding the front door open for her, while his other locked fingers with one of hers…

----------------------------------

Their hands swayed forwards and back as they approached the marquee, but as they abruptly halted their leisurely walk, they separated violently.

"No. You're…Don't joke about that. The movie starts in five minutes." Anna's hand, still warm from Yoh's sweaty, nervous, yet caring grip, began dangerously balling into a frustrated fist…

"I…I'm not kidding, Anna," replied Yoh meekly. "I would have remembered, but—" _But I saw you coming down the stairs and, well, shit, _you_ would forget everything you were thinking of if you saw someone that beautiful walking towards you! _ "…But I…I screwed up, I'm sorry…"

"Well, I…I really want to see this movie, Yoh. I'm going to see it, whether you can come with me or not. It's your own damn fault for being so friggin' absent-minded, seriously."

Something was missing from her ultimatum; she turned her back on him, but with a hint of hesitance, and her voice shook even as it adopted the glacial tone Yoh had come to dread…

He sighed, watching the blonde halo fade from view behind the tinted doors of the cinema, and gradually came to stare down his own reflection. He ruefully rolled his sleeves back up and unbuttoned the front, but at that moment his reflection was thrown askew, and a tall, broad-shouldered young man swaggered towards him. The ludicrousness of his puffy shirt was outweighed only by the flamboyance of his pompadour, but Yoh did not laugh; he knew this man, down to his hirsute, thick arms and bushy eyebrows…

"Yoh-sama!" The man stopped short a few paces of Yoh when he realized all was not well. "Why the long face?"

"Ryu…hey," he managed, straining against his own frown to make a thoroughly unconvincing smile.

"No, none of that. Out with it. Why are you even here, anyway? If Anna finds you here…" When he saw Yoh's shoulders slump at the mention of Anna's name, he realized the source of Yoh's discontent. "Hey, buck up, Master. Guys like us, we don't need no stinkin' girls anyhow. A dame just gets in the way when we're looking for our Best Place." With a reassuring smirk, Ryu gestured to Yoh to follow. Mired in his own gloom, Yoh acquiesced and found himself sitting in the cramped sidecar of a motorcycle. Its engine roared with raw power and belched exhaust, sending the pair onto the blacktop. The scene scrolled past them as the bustling city ceded gradually to bare plains, and, eventually, verdant trees that choked the horizon. They rode in a silence broken only by the motorcycle's purrs and the rickety sidecar clattering against rough patches on the road. A clearing came into view in the distance, and Ryu braked gently, easing the hog into a small parking lot fronting a squat white structure flanked by dilapidated benches coated in peeling green paint.

Stretching and grunting, Ryu unstrapped his helmet and tossed it into the sidecar once Yoh vacated it. Wordlessly he strode to one of the benches, reclining himself upon it, and gazing out with unfocused eyes. Yoh joined him, and even after the long ride found himself still vaguely dissatisfied with the fiasco at the theater.

Finally Ryu spoke. "A little slice of heaven, wouldn't you say?"

Yoh fidgeted upon the warped bench. Sure, the trees were imposing and lush, reaching out to the cloudy sky as though searching for a greater being, but he could smell the distinct odor that wafted from the building just to his side…

"It's…Ryu, this is just a highway rest stop." He didn't mean to sound rude, but he ascribed his curtness to Anna.

"That it is," he replied, fishing a crumpled pack of Lucky Sevens out of his front pocket. His callused thumb coaxed a flame from his burnished lighter, and Yoh watched as wisps of smoke drifted like loose threads into the still, humid air, and disappeared. "But your Best Place probably won't be the same as mine. If you'll pardon the pun, your mileage may vary."

It's universal: No matter how good or foul your mood, and no matter how much effort went into making it, any given pun will be met with a hearty groan. Yoh did not disappoint.

"Sorry, I had to," Ryu apologized with a shrug. He thrust the cellophane-shrouded pack at Yoh's chest. "Would you like one?"

He was about to decline, but his interaction with Anna had really thrown his brain for a loop. The cigarette felt foreign between his lips, and he breathed in timidly. Immediately a burning filled his lungs, and he coughed violently, feeling as though a particularly vicious kick had been planted square in his chest…

"See? We both have different tastes," Ryu continued casually, as though Yoh weren't spitting onto the grass now, trying to rid his mouth of the acrid taste of the tobacco. "Rest stops are my Best Place, because I'm a wanderer at heart. I've always been. I've never had a stable place to call home, and these little outposts in the middle of nowhere…They're like meeting places for fellow roamers like me. I know whenever I see a truck parked in one of these stalls, that its owner is an eternal traveler the same way I am. Somehow the thought that there are others like me out there makes me feel…less alone, in a way."

Yoh nodded, sobered slightly by Ryu's unusual eloquence.

"Now I ask you, Master. Do you have a Best Place? That special spot that makes you feel happy and complete just thinking about being there? Where your troubles melt away and nothing else matters, where being there is not just the only thing that matters, but the _only_ thing, period?"

As he mulled it over, a smile broke on Yoh's face for the first time since he realized he had forgotten his movie ticket. Indeed, he knew where his Best Place truly was, and he thought of it now, and, just as Ryu had described, he felt the unease of the afternoon abate as he imagined himself within the confines of his Best Place, and the accompanying warmth that radiated against his skin. He was already there in his mind by the time he had stuffed himself back in Ryu's sidecar, roaring back towards civilization and the theatre…

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Blinding light flooded the theater as the movie screen filled up with pure white. The female lead, dressed in an implausibly luxuriant wedding dress, delivered an innuendo-laden line through her pearly teeth that left the audience roaring with laughter. Anna joined in and involuntarily looked over to see if he was also laughing—

She cut short her giggle as a small lump formed in the back of her throat. Now the male lead, suave and handsome as ever, bowed his head slightly and acknowledged his bride's double-entendre. They embraced; the camera zoomed in to show off the makeup artist's mastery of his trade, as flawless cheeks nuzzled against each other. Anna casually stretched her arms in her seat, draping one upon the headrest next to hers, and glanced over seductively, seeing if he had noticed—

Her sigh was swallowed up by the booming speakers, but she already knew what she had to do…

Meanwhile Yoh had dismounted from Ryu's sidecar, waving goodbye even as his tires squealed upon the greasy pavement. He guessed the movie still had a good half-hour left, and he noticed his reflection again. Once more he toyed with his sleeves, slipped buttons into eyes and wiggled his hair into a semblance of order, and once more the reflection slid to one side as the door swung open…

For a split second Yoh thought some glare had streaked upon the tinted glass, but then he noticed the azure strands of beads upon the blackness, and the shock of golden hair that loomed ever larger as the black-clad figure strode nearer.

He discovered himself as tongue-tied as he was happy at this new turn of events. "Anna…"

She was no better at expressing herself: "Oh, Yoh…" What happened next certainly surprised both of them; Anna bridged the remaining gap between them, and Yoh felt unparalleled joy shiver through his body as her delicate arms wrapped around his waist. His surprised gasp blew past her face…and the hug broke apart nearly as quickly as it had formed.

"Yoh! Did you smoke?!"

_Uh-oh…_ "Er, no, that was Ryu…"

"You met up with Wooden Sword Ryu?" Anna inquired. "What'd you guys do?"

"He told me all about his Best Place. And he helped me find mine."

She laughed, her arms reaching behind Yoh's back once more. "You two are more alike than either of you would like to admit. Both such hopeless romantics…but then again, I like that."

The excitement and joy returned to Yoh as her arms encircled his waist, and as he felt her supple body press against his gently, all other thoughts vacated his mind, until he could see only two figures from above, embracing warmly in the ether…

"So what is your Best Place?"

"Where else? In your arms, of course."

Anna shook her head slightly. "Hopeless. Romantic."

Some outside anxiety returned to Yoh's mind briefly. "But wait…unless that was the shortest movie ever, you're missing the ending right now!"

"Yeah, but what does it matter? I already know how it ends, Yoh."

She leaned into him slightly, feeling his surprised lips brush hers, but he overcame the initial shock and pushed with his lips gently, and felt a burning in his chest again, but this time in a euphoric way, and he continued to draw Anna into his mouth and lungs, breathing in her passion, and exhaling his own, and it pirouetted upon their tongues as they lolled to and fro. Even when their lips finally separated, the warmth and security of Anna's arms kept him elated, and he rested his chin lightly upon her shoulder, pressed gently against her back, and felt her soft hair tickle him upon his neck. Moviegoers hurried past them, bellowing and shoving, but they paid no mind: Only they mattered; only they existed. There was no makeup artist, no key grip, no director, but then again, they didn't need anyone but each other, and that is the essence of the Best Place…


	18. The Interloper

Summary: In this first part of a two-shot story, an old menace from Anna's past resurfaces. Considering that Yoh will be the one who must deal with it, why does Anna want him to know as little as possible about it?

Written: God only knows how long this took to write. School sucks. Published on 10/3/07.

Rating: **T** for **mild language** and **romantic themes**.

Notes: This is another two-shot story arc in the making. (Don't hold your breath for the next part; as I've said over and over again, school sucks.) I hope you enjoy it! Thanks also for being patient with me; I know I made you wait way too long for new content. Honestly I don't see myself having very much spare time in the near future, but then again, it all depends on the kind of feedback I get...

The Interloper

_Kiss #17_

_"So keep your mouth shut, keep your guard up. I swear I'll make it right."_

-Dashboard Confessional, _Thick __As__ Thieves_

"In a world so consumed with material things, it is refreshing to watch you work."

Anna's fingertips were as white as the clove of garlic she was fighting to peel. She scowled at the interloper who had just spoken, and, perhaps subconsciously, picked up a rather large steak knife from the countertop. Giving him a cold stare that would send lesser men hurdling away in fear, she sighed slightly when she recognized the powerfully built figure of Tao Ren.

She, however, maintained her grip on the knife. "What a…surprise to see you here, Ren."

The Chinese boy gave an exaggerated bow, so that the prominent spike of hair at the back of his scalp bore down upon Anna's face. "A pleasant surprise, I'm sure." His almond-shaped eyes fed upon Anna's seething malice, until they narrowed almost as severely as hers. Even Ren did not have complete immunity to Anna's intimidating aura, though, and he backed away just an inch and swallowed hard. "I have been wrong before. How are you, Anna—"

"Cut the crap," she replied, and the hand with the knife twitched, almost giving her outburst literal meaning. "You never come around unless you want to talk to Yoh. And seeing as how I'm doing the cooking today, you can bet your ass he isn't here." Ren felt the unspoken invitation to the front door that she had delivered, but he remained rooted to the spot.

"Lady Anna, I must insist upon speaking to Yoh today. It is a matter of grave importance."

"Listen to yourself," Anna sneered, savagely tearing leaves off a stalk of celery so that strings of pale green swirled to the floor like confetti, "you sound like you've got a broomstick up your butt. Besides, I hardly think spending the afternoon at the arcade is a 'matter of grave importance'." Inwardly she was suspicious; Ren had become almost civil, not at all his usual cynical, belligerent self.

Ren closed his eyes tightly, as though afraid and almost piteous for having to say what he would. "Lady Anna…I require Yoh's assistance to dispatch a…threat…that has resurfaced at Mount Osore."

The metallic _thunk_ of a knife hitting the floor resounded around Anna's still figure. The beads upon her chest were still wobbling from her gasp, but she herself was ashen-face and stunned. _Mount __Osore__…where __Yoh__ rid me of that demon that possessed me, nearly six years ago…Has it returned?!_

"I thought it would be appropriate for Yoh to assist me with this, since obviously he has a vested interest…"

Anna showed no sign of hearing his words whatsoever. She remained motionless, still staring at a bit of empty wall a few feet above and behind the spike of Ren's hairdo. Abruptly, her hair shook violently, as though some higher power had wrung her head out like a blonde mop, and she stooped to pick up the knife she had dropped.

"Lady Anna, I trust you understand?"

Her chest rose and fell sharply as she forced herself to calm down. "Yes…of course." A shaky hand clasped around a spotless glass, and her other hand wrenched open the refrigerator door. "Why don't you…"

Ren pulled himself a stool rather roughly and seated himself, accepting Anna's glass of milk graciously. "Thank you. I…" Ren's goldenrod eyes nervously shifted between the half-prepared meal next to the sink and Anna's face, which looked oddly vulnerable…

If she was indeed uncomfortable, however, she suppressed it decently. "When does Yoh need to be ready?"

He sipped his milk pensively. "The threat should be dispatched with all due haste. But I can understand if you need tonight to…um…Yoh will likely be gone several days, so…"

Anna looked at Ren's bashful expression with utter contempt. "I am not so dense as to miss what you're implying. Why do men always desire _that_ as the preferred way to say goodbye?"

The glass of milk wobbled precariously on the table as Ren hastened to amend his statement. "Forgive me, Anna, I simply meant that since…this particular opponent might have special significance for the both of you, a little preparation might be in order."

Anna's shoulders stiffened, and she looked as though she were about to nod, but then she shook her head. "No…Yoh cannot know. The agony and suffering that being possessed by a demon, an _oni_, can cause…That in itself is daunting, but if he knew _I_ had been corrupted by the very same…No…If he knew…"

Ren realized how tactless it was of him to gawk at Anna at her moment of weakness, but at the same time he couldn't help himself. Anna was always so dauntless and pragmatic; when had she ever before looked so close to crying? "Yes, Lady Anna…this is certainly a uniquely trying situation. Yoh seems to operate best when he's relaxed. I suppose if he were forewarned of his opponent, he might not perform to his full potential. I understand."

"No, you don't," Anna hissed, a beet clutched so tightly in her right hand that blood-red sap began running down her forearm in angry rivulets. "Yoh cannot know how I was tormented. The darkest days of my childhood, the misery, the suffering…I bear them within myself, alone. To skive off any of it onto Yoh's shoulders…He doesn't deserve it, I couldn't…I love Yoh too much to…"

"Love?!" The words escaped Ren's lips before he could stop himself. "Servitude, punishment, slavery, are words that come to mind more readily—"

_Smack!_

"I love Yoh." Anna's tone of voice left no room for argument. "And I will tell him to expect you tomorrow morning. I don't want to see you again until then."

Ren rose from his stool and rubbed his reddened cheek resentfully. "Fine by me. Another token of your 'love,' I presume," he sniped as he made his way to the door.

She placed the beet on the cutting board, but gave a bloodcurdling scream as she plunged the knife into it savagely. Deep crimson dye splattered in all directions, welling forth from the incision and pooling at its base, and Anna imagined it was blood, Yoh's blood, freely flowing from his body as it had so many times before, in the shaman fights she could not bear to ponder, much less watch. Yoh, whom she could at turns not stand and not live without. Yoh, who deserved to remain innocent of the details of her tormented childhood, and Anna, who beneath her cold exterior had feelings, feelings that yearned to be shared with the man she loved...

"Anna, you have a very unusual way of slicing beets, I have to say."

Yoh stood at the threshold of the kitchen, a rumpled paper sack clutched in both of his hands. He had already laid it upon the floor and had his hand poised to open the pantry door when he noticed. Something was preoccupying Anna, and he would have bet dollars to _dango_ that it wasn't the beet, but rather the person who had commented about the way she was cutting them…

"Actually, that cologne…Ren was here. Has he been hassling you again? You shouldn't let him get to you, he can come off as a jerk sometimes, but he means well, I think…" He trailed off, realizing he was babbling, and pulled a stool over to Anna. It was still warm and creased from Ren's presence. Almost reluctantly, Anna abandoned the mortally wounded beet and allowed herself to slump over in the seat.

"Yoh." Anna's shoulders hunched over towards her lap, and even her usually vibrant hair looked mottled and lifeless. Two delicate, beet-stained hands rose slowly, until she buried her face in them. Yoh tentatively approached her from behind, extending one of his own hands until it gently clasped around her wrist. Pulling it away slightly, he placed his other hand upon her chin, raising it inch by inch until she was looking into his sympathetic eyes.

He was surprised at her lack of resistance to his touch, but was infinitely more shocked by what he now saw. Her cheeks, where they weren't streaked by beet juice, were still flush with emotion, and a definite puffiness marred her usually clear eyes. Yoh swallowed hard; anything that brought Anna to the verge of tears was very bad news indeed. "Anna," he said in a voice that, even to him, sounded nothing at all like his, "if Ren's responsible for whatever's bothering you right now, I'm going to—"

"Best not to get too upset at him," she replied as though he hadn't spoken. "You're gonna be spending the better part of a week with the guy, after all."

As she had done not ten minutes ago, Yoh was now the one standing stock still, staring directly into Anna's stoic, strained face but seeing nothing. At last he managed a choked "What?"

"Ren has asked for your help to deal with a…" In the pause that followed, Yoh could see Anna lose her composure again for a moment before she plowed on. "…A malicious spirit that has returned to this world."

"Oh." At her words Yoh blinked once, and as his eyes opened again Yoh had to make sure Anna was still there, sitting on the stool doing her best to look calm and collected. Then, against his will, a resounding laugh left his lips, and a lightness surrounded his chest. He couldn't believe Anna was freaking out over something so mundane. "Is _that_ it?! I've fought shamans who wouldn't think twice about snuffing my life out like a drowning candle. I've squared off against crazy spirit mediums who'd probably dissect my body and pickle my spleen as a trophy. Some 'malicious spirit'? It's as good as exorcised. Especially if Ren's got my back."

Anna bit back her reply; she knew she had to, for his sake. Forcing herself to give a little chuckle that rang false to both their ears, she nodded. In a shaky voice, she said, "Well, Yoh…you'd better rest up for tomorrow. I'll let you know when dinner is ready."

"Are you sure? I could finish this for you, no sweat—"

"No…I'd prefer to be alon—to finish what I started myself."

"Er, alright…" Yoh turned away; he would have preferred to have a talk with Anna about her unusual behavior, but he knew that when Anna was so willing to do the chores that were usually his responsibility, there was no room for negotiation.

In his room he felt restless, despite Anna's recommendation that he relax. Her demeanor had definitely thrown him for a loop, and as he inattentively shoved clothes into a battered backpack he wondered why Anna was so obviously distressed over another mundane exorcism. Even during his shaman fights she had been a paragon of stoicism, appearing as though she could care less that his life was on the line. Was there something, about his opponent, or perhaps something only _she_ could explain, that forced her to drop the cavalier attitude?

Soon, as he forced the zippers shut on the now bulging backpack, the smells of a well-prepared meal began seeping into his room. He stood up, expecting Anna to knock on his door any second now, and when he heard footsteps in the hallway, his stomach gave an anticipatory growl. But the creaking gait echoed past his door, punctuated by the rumbling of a sliding door opening. Yoh waited for a minute or two, and when the footsteps did not return, made his way to the hall. Anna had left the door open to her room, and through it came a faint sound, like sucking on a straw in a nearly empty cup—_a sniffle?_ Then he heard, barely louder than the sound of his own surprised breath, what he swore was a whimper, a plaintive yet emotional sob.

On his tiptoes, Yoh crept to the doorway, poking his neck around the door frame. Anna was sitting atop the foot of her bed; her hair obscured her face, but her hands cradled something in her lap. About a foot long and stone-grey, it curved and narrowed to a wicked tip. Perhaps it was the shock of seeing Anna so vulnerable, or perhaps he was simply too caught up in realizing why she had been in such an unusual mood, but Yoh spoke out loud:

"An _oni_ horn…I see now."

Anna's neck whipped around, but she merely looked up at Yoh, still subconsciously turning the horn over in her pale hands. He had not been invited in, but nor had she charged him furiously, so he approached her, until he could see every chip and scrape on the horn's surface. He didn't know what to say, but she spoke of her own accord.

"It's horrible, Yoh, just awful…No words can describe what it's like, to be…"

"Possessed," he almost finished for her, but the last word, he realized, didn't need to be spoken.

"You don't know how lucky, how thankful I am that you freed me from it, Yoh. No one should ever feel that, the way your very soul is rent asunder whenever the _oni_ wants to escape your body. No one should ever feel the sense of never-ending despair and cold hatred that fills your body when it attacks, and the perverted joy you feel in the pit of your stomach when it…kills…oh, Yoh, no one should ever have to go through what I did before I met you…"

Yoh found himself sitting on the bed, close enough to Anna to feel the warmth of her tears upon his neck, looking down onto her forehead intensely, as though he could see her scarred soul through her flawless skin.

"You have to succeed in driving it back to hell. I know you can do it. I don't love failures, but I…I love you, Yoh."

"I love you too, Anna," he almost replied, until he figured that sometimes, actions speak louder than words. His fingertips glided over the teary streaks on her face, rubbing them away, and began combing her disheveled hair. Her body was still trembling as he pressed it against his, but when he embraced it with both his arms the quivering stopped. Anna's eyes were still watery, but Yoh's glimmered with resolve. They stared into one another for several moments, until—

Yoh's lips, intent on comforting his fiancée, advanced suddenly, not stopping until they found hers. He could feel her begin to quake again, but rather than fear, it was passion that sent her palpitating now, passion that he could taste more and more distinctly the more their tongues lilted together. Yoh could not delete the scars the _oni_ had left, but as their lips remained locked he almost sensed that his soul was entering hers, melding with hers, filling in the void the demon had carved. They completed each other, but alas, the kiss was complete as well.

Slowly Yoh reclined on the bed, gently pulling Anna with him, and he could feel the ends of her hairs poking through his shirt as she laid her head upon his chest. She perceived the warm, rhythmic pulse of his heart, and it somehow reassured her that everything would turn out all right. But abruptly, she sat up, twirling a few strands of her own hair around one of her fingers. Yoh watched, confused, as she took a pair of scissors to the roots, snipping off several of her delicate blonde strands and loosely knotting them in a bundle.

"You know," she said softly, placing them in Yoh's hands and clasping her own around them, "so a little bit of me can go with you."

"Oh…how sweet, Anna…"

The dinner she had so meticulously prepared downstairs was growing cold, but upstairs things had never been quite so warm, with Anna in Yoh's arms upon a soft bed. She fell asleep with his gentle, soothing breath tickling her cheek, and he rested easy as well, not knowing what would come later, but at the same time certain he couldn't help but succeed, if only for—or perhaps because of—her love…


	19. The Interceptor

Summary: In this conclusion to the two-parter, Yoh and Ren hit a snag in their plan—even before they set foot on Mount Osore. What will become of them?

Written: Oh geez. Let's not talk about that… Finished (finally) on 11/7/07.

Rating: **T** for **mild language**, **violence**, and **mild romantic themes**, including (very slight) **yaoi** (gasp!)

Notes: Well, it's done. I don't claim that it's any good, just that it's a miracle I wrote it at all, considering the mound of schoolwork I've been clawing my way through recently. Anyway, please try to enjoy it despite the suckiness, hehe.

_Edit (11/8): Noticed a few of my punctuation marks, space breaks, etc. had been lost when I uploaded. These errors have been corrected._

The Interceptor

_Kiss #18_

Through a window smudged with greasy fingerprints and streaks of rain long ago dried, Yoh could see, just behind the pothole-ridden parking lot, a lush copse of trees that abruptly ended at the base of a mountain. In stark contrast to the verdant foliage before it, the promontory stood drab and lifeless, looking no less sinister in its barren grayness even with an equally gloomy sky backing it.

For a second Yoh's eyes narrowed as they took in the mountain, but he shook his head and shifted his attention to the table before him. Hungry as he was, he ignored his tall stack of pancakes and addressed his companion warily. "Do you really have to carry that poleaxe with you everywhere?"

Ren smiled, a gesture that if anything was more menacing than his usual expression. "I don't trust any of these swine farther than I can stab them. Which is, thankfully, pretty far."

"Why do you hate humanity so much?" Yoh poured a generous stream of syrup onto his pancakes, perhaps doling out more than he meant to as he continued to speak. "I mean, people aren't all bad. I'm your friend, right?"

The Chinese boy gave a harsh laugh—one that, like his smile, betrayed his true contempt. "On the occasion of our first meeting, I came within inches of killing you. What makes you think my feelings have changed since then?"

Taken aback, Yoh barely noticed the puddle of syrup that was now oozing off his plate onto the table.

"I should have chosen my words more carefully, Yoh. I meant to say certainly we are friends, if only because we share a common enemy. But even such a friendship of convenience is counter-intuitive. To become Shaman King, one of us will inevitably need to eliminate the other."

As Yoh mopped ineffectively at the syrup river with his cloth napkin, Ren leaned forward aggressively. "Remember, Yoh. I keep my friends close—and my enemies closer."

"Fine, fine," Yoh said with all the calmness he could muster with Ren bearing down on him. "You don't like me. You don't like anyone, it seems. Then why," he asked, finally managing to bring a forkful of syrup-saturated pancake to his mouth, "do you want this _oni_ dead? Wouldn't you rather see it terrorize these 'swine' for whatever they've done that makes you hate them so much? And why bring _me_ along for help? Don't you hate me, too?" Yoh had rather tried to keep the bitterness out of his voice, but found, for that moment at least, he disliked his partner.

"Hate is such a strong word, Yoh. Ordinary people I dislike for allowing wickedness to perpetuate itself, but such behavior is only passively evil." Ren's veined hands clasped as though in furious prayer as he continued, "However, the _oni_ takes an unspoiled child and channels through him its corrupted joy, its perverted satisfaction, feeds him lies, makes him into something that everyone detests. Including himself. Your fiancée knows well the phenomenon. And while I have never spent time under the influence of an _oni_, the ordeal—"

"Is exactly what your father did to you."

It was hard to tell who looked more shocked at what Yoh had blurted. Ren had sloshed a fair bit of milk onto the table, while Yoh had dropped his knife into a pool of syrup. A look of comprehension and newfound respect took shape on his face, while Ren's features hardened abruptly, as though trying to ward off any pity he was about to receive. He looked awkward for a moment, not sure what to say, when he remembered the second part of Yoh's inquiry.

"And as for why I brought you along…Call me a sentimental fool, but I've come to enjoy your company."

It was Yoh's turn to feel awkward. He thought it might be a good idea to imitate, say, the cool protagonist of a popular manga series, so he reached out a hand and made to clasp Ren on the shoulder, but he scooted aside.

"It's nothing personal," Ren said to Yoh's bewildered look. "It's just your hand, well, it's dripping with syrup."

"Oh!"

"How can you even eat at a time like this, anyway?" The glass of milk in his hands was nearly empty. "I've been too nervous to take one bite since yesterday afternoon."

Yoh smiled. "What's to be nervous about? We can only be as powerful as we know we can be. The other half of the equation is our opponent, and worrying over what we can't control won't change anything."

"Heh. When you're right, you're right." A moment's pause ensued, but Ren felt acutely aware of the emptiness in his stomach. "Hey, Yoh, um, are you going to finish that?"

"Huh? Oh, go for it."

"Geez, man. You want some pancakes with your syrup, maybe?"

"Well, you see, I kind of got distracted when I poured that, when you started talking about how much you hate me…"

"Come on! I thought you'd be used to it by now…"

"Just so we're clear. You _don't_, do you?"

"Argh! You know, maybe I do after all!"

"Seriously?"

"You're hopeless, Yoh."

--------------------

_It's hopeless, __Yoh._

_I can't stop thinking about you._

Anna stood before the television in the living room, but it lay still and quiet. Instead she stared over it, to the framed portrait of her fiancé. The fact that he would sit for a photograph with those headphones still straddling the back of his head was a testament to his carefree attitude. His wide eyes, childish grin, and unkempt hair gave an aura that was palpable, even through the picture, a vibe of innocence, one that at once attracted and repulsed her…

_Enjoy it while you can, __Yoh__. We all lose our innocence sooner or later. Some of us had it stolen from us._

She had forgotten about the object in her hand, a cold spike with the color and texture of coarse granite, which seemed to send hatred coursing through her veins anew. _In exchange for my innocence, I received this horn. Not much of a fair trade._

_It no longer controls me, but its vestiges haunt me still. __The way its joy is obtained at the torture and suffering of others. The way it measures success by the bodies it leaves in its wake. The way its love…No, it does not love. It cannot.__ It loves by dominating, by controlling._

The portrait of Yoh changed; the innocent eyes now burned with a white intensity that emanated from her own conscience. _And yet, what exists between __Yoh__ and I is love, isn't it? Or do I dominate, do I control?_

She knew the answer, even before she found herself collapsing onto the couch. _Am I __no__ better for the way I treat __Yoh__? Of course—mine is out of love…_

_But it's a fine line indeed._ The photograph was fading now, as though harsh glare was refracting off the glass, and Anna's slender arm involuntarily lunged out to touch it. When she realized what she had subconsciously done, she was poignantly aware, for the first time since Yoh had left hours ago, of how alone she truly was.

_I love you. It's about damn time I proved it._

--------------------

"Love?"

It was odd for Yoh to be speaking of such a topic when he and Ren were surrounded as they were by barren, jagged rocks as far as the eye could see, but he hadn't initiated the conversation.

"Yeah. I mean, your marriage is arranged, right? Do you think you'd still marry her if you were given the choice?"

Yoh looked uncomfortable; he was sweating, and it wasn't entirely due to the arduous trek up the mountainside. He shrugged, trying to make it look as unconcerned as he could, but Ren thought he saw his fists clench anxiously as he did so. "What is love, anyway? I mean, the idea's been done to death. You hear it everywhere. Greeting cards. Movies. Even hack fan fiction authors."

He was skirting the issue, and Ren wasn't unaware of his dilatory tactics. "Yep, it's everywhere. Which is all the more reason why you should know if what you have with Anna is love. Or not."

"We're happy together, all right?" Yoh snapped uncharacteristically. He realized he had shouted and stopped, mouth open in contrition. "I—I'm sorry, I…"

Ren shook his head wistfully. "See, you shouldn't have to apologize for honesty like that. I wonder where you learned to be so reserved with your feelings?" he asked disingenuously, for he already knew the answer he was looking for.

With a defeated sigh, Yoh admitted, "It's hard sometimes. She can be a cruel taskmaster, but I know she has my best interests in mind. Most of the time, at least. I just wish…well, I honestly believe I love her, and…"

His face felt suddenly warm, and knew he must have been blushing without Ren pointing it out. Nonetheless, he finished, "…it would be nice if she'd give me reason to believe she does, too."

Ren nodded, steadfastly taking no notice of Yoh's embarrassment. "I hear you. And people wonder why I'm still single. Ha! Girls—who needs them?"

There was a strained, bittersweet grimace on Ren's face at that moment, and seeing it made Yoh feel inexplicably forlorn. His hand—free of sticky syrup this time—clasped his friend's shoulder reassuringly. "Buck up, Ren. You'll find someone sooner than you think."

Ren turned around slowly, taking a single step toward Yoh, and for a brief moment a stream of crazy, frenzied thoughts ran through his mind. _Wait, is his face coming closer to mine? Dear God, why am I not disturbed by that? __Aw, what the hell__—_

"What the hell?!"

With a start, Yoh opened his eyes and jerked his head around. Little did he know Ren's eyes had been closed too…

"Mount Osore has a history of tormented spirits and bloodshed, and you two dare defile it with your ungodly acts?! A thousand _obake_ upon both your heads, heathens!"

As both Yoh and Ren stared, quivering, at the old man in tattered robes, he shook his head and continued up the mountain path, the sound of his walking stick scraping the rock going unnoticed. "God only knows what that young woman down the path was doing, too, sure looked suspect to me," he muttered to himself as he disappeared around a bend.

Yoh and Ren turned their heads towards each other simultaneously. A minute of very pregnant silence ticked by, followed by rapid speech:

"I, uh, well, I felt faint for a moment there, you know, heatstroke and all," Yoh blustered.

"Yeah, and I, err, I just needed a shoulder to cry on," ventured Ren, clearing his throat overzealously. "So, um, shall we get going?"

"Leaving so soon? What's the rush?"

Yoh froze halfway through a step, lurching slightly forward, his mouth agape. Ren snapped to rigidity and stayed there, standing absurdly straight, his knuckles white around his quivering spear.

_That voice…_ Yoh shuddered, realizing he had unsheathed Harusame instinctively. _Like nails on a chalkboard…_

"It's been five years, and evidently your manners have not improved since." A cerulean oval materialized in the air before them, shimmering and shaking like a globe of floating water, until sickly crimson limbs poked through, clawing and kicking their way out. It was almost entirely free of its prison, save for the head, which abruptly launched forward. Yoh and Ren dived in opposite directions just before the _oni_ tumbled between them with a shrill, chilling laugh.

"Don't be difficult," the _oni _cackled, standing erect. Excluding its horn, it stood a full head and shoulders above Yoh's compact frame. It raised one of its hands—the sickly sallow claws of fingernails made Ren wince—and felt at the top of its bald, blood-red scalp.

"You have a trophy from me. Now it's my turn." Its fingers glided over a gray stump protruding from its scalp, a deadly glare smoldering in its fiery pupils. "Don't worry—I'm not unreasonable. I shall spare your life as you spared mine. An arm or leg will suffice…Yoh Asakura."

Without warning, the demon charged straight towards Yoh. His pulse quickened, but he felt a totally unrelated warmth within his chest as he leapt, with strength that was almost entirely not his. As he saw a streak of red pass through where he had been just a moment ago, he exhaled sharply. "Thanks, Amidamaru."

"We are not free of danger yet, Yoh-dono," came the reply. Sure enough, as soon as Yoh's feet touched the ground again, he barely saw out of the corner of his eye a vermillion streak. It grew bigger, and Yoh felt himself face it. A glint of polished steel made to intercept the streak, but it changed course just inches before his blade, and now Yoh was the one facing an attack—

"Aaargh!"

"Yoh!!"

The warmth in his chest was gone immediately, and Yoh felt as though icicles had just raked across his ribcage. A stinging, haunting cold embraced him then, and it was worse than any physical pain he had ever endured; rather than inspire his fighting spirit, this injury instead made him feel helpless…_Must…fight…_he thought, and he saw with blurred vision Ren sending his spear twirling in all directions. But it was no use; the despair had made it into his bloodstream, and he kneeled, closing his eyes…

"Yoh-dono!"

Nothing. It's over, Yoh thought, kneeling, immobile…

"_Yoh-dono!!_"

"Amidamaru…no…we're done for, the suffering will end sooner…if I lay still…"

Silence from the samurai. The sound of rushing air from near-misses and barely dodged swipes went uninterrupted, until Amidamaru hit upon the solution…

"Reach into your pocket, Yoh!"

"What? Don't…don't be ridiculous…"

"Yoh-dono, I beg of you, do it!"

"I…" Resignedly, Yoh's free hand slid languidly to his pocket. There was nothing in it…but then his fingertips brushed something silky yet bristly, and the bundle felt rejuvenating, warm…

"Ugh!"

Yoh looked up, filled with new resolve. That was the first thing he heard, followed an instant later by the clatter of a polearm hitting a bed of rock.

"You of all people should know," squealed the demon, "friends are only good for stabbing you in the back."

Yoh wondered for a moment what the _oni_ meant by that, until he noticed Ren's retrieval of his weapon was oddly mechanical, and there was a vacant expression in his eyes…

"Ren? _Ren!_"

Before he could yell a third time, he was rolling to avoid a sharpened spear tip. He heard his shirt tearing and felt an adrenaline rush from the closeness of the encounter. _What am I going to do? __Ren's__ a match for me, and with the demon that's possessing him…I've got to find some way of killing the _oni_ without taking __Ren__ with him!_

Yoh found his sword arm parrying a vicious lunge, but the momentum of the attack still sent him flying. Ren riposted, and Yoh was forced into an ungraceful backflip to maintain a grip on his _katana_. He smacked Ren with his elbow, but he returned to his feet almost instantly. _I can't keep this up forever._

_One of us is going to die…Maybe __Ren__ was right after all…_

"Enough!" shrieked the _oni_.

When Yoh saw Ren adopt a wide stance and shift his grip on his polearm to the very base, he gulped and stared, wide-eyed, knowing what was coming.

_The __Vorpal__ Dance…_

He knew what he had to do.

_I can't hurt my friends._

_I'd…I'd sooner die…_

Ren touched off from the ground. Yoh's vision began to wash out; the _oni_'s skin appeared delicate pink now. _So this is what dying is like. Almost like the movies._ Feeling a rush like never before, Yoh charged with every muscle toward the _oni_, but it merely gave a harsh laugh and put up both of its horrible clawed hands.

"Kill me, then, hell-spawn," Yoh hissed, fearing nothing anymore. "Let's dance!"

The demon laughed again. "I'm done toying with you, Asakura. Die!"

Yoh had time for one lunge with his sword. The demon leapt above his attack while swiping with his horrible claw; Yoh tried to roll under the _oni_, but he knew his time had come. A horrible feeling, like frozen diamonds eviscerating him through the chest, overwhelmed him; he shuddered in midair before coming to a dead stop on the ground just inches behind the _oni_.

"Someone…greater than me will save you, Ren."

A cough; a great, rattling breath.

And then all was blackness…

--------------------

_There's something touching my shoulder, I think._

_But that's impossible. I'm dead._

Two screams echoed off the mountainside as Yoh pried his eyes open. The first thing he saw was a fearsome spear point, massive as an axe head, wedged into the rock, in the middle of a pool of green ichor, not two inches from his face.

The second scream was even higher-pitched, which made sense, as it was uttered by a female. It wasn't fearful, as Yoh's had been.

Yoh blinked. The spear did not vanish, although its shaft, he now saw, had impaled a one-horned _oni_ square in the chest. He craned his head upwards and saw a Chinese boy tightly knotting a field dressing around his abdomen. At that moment he was knocked unceremoniously aside, while Yoh found himself dizzy and lightheaded and suddenly swept to his feet…

"_Yoh!_"

He stood there stupidly even as Anna's arms wound behind his back. The warmth of her body didn't quite register. All he could manage was, "Why…You shouldn't be here…"

Anna ran a hand across his field dressing. "And you wonder why…why I worry about you sometimes," she whispered, her face nestled in his shoulder.

"You worry about me?"

"Of course!" Anna's reply was oddly stuffy, and it wasn't just muffled from his shoulder. "Yoh…Don't you leave me…You'd better not…You can't die, all right?"

Despite himself, and despite his urge to say something romantic, he laughed. He still felt as though this all hadn't happened, but Anna's arms suddenly unclasping behind his back did a great deal in snapping him back to reality.

"I'm serious…Oh, Yoh, do you understand, do you…love…"

He didn't quite know what to say, but it was too late anyway; Anna had taken a seat on the bare stone, and now Ren stood before him, looking almost remorseful…

The words would have been ludicrous in any other circumstance, but neither of them so much as smiled. "Yoh, I'm sorry I almost killed you."

"It's…it's quite all right, Ren. It's nothing you haven't tried to do to me before."

That got a little laugh from Ren. "But seriously, that was an awesome move. You managed to get behind the _oni_ right as my attack would have…well, would have got you."

"That was total luck," Yoh admitted. "I just…well…"

"Huh?"

"Ren, I honestly thought I was going to die at that moment. I just wanted to try to get to the demon once before that."

"But…Yoh, you could have easily overpowered me to get to the demon instead—"

"No, I couldn't have." Yoh looked directly into Ren's amber eyes as he finished, "Because you're my friend."

Stunned silence for a couple of seconds. Then, "Aww…what the heck."

Yoh felt strangely stiff embracing his friend, but more importantly it felt necessary. "Thanks, buddy," said Ren, who looked no less awkward giving Yoh a sharp pat on the back.

"Oh Lord, not you two boys again. Why don't you get a room already?"

"What?!"

_Ugh, not that old man again?! What great timing, too…_

"Oh, crap…Anna, look, it's not what it sounds like…" She had stood up and, from the looks of it, appeared ready to liberally administer slaps. Yoh, for the first time since he had lost consciousness, raised his left hand in anticipation, but a little yellow bundle slipped out…

He bent over to pick it up. The blond strands of hair were still reassuringly warm and smooth, and when he stood up, Anna was staring at it as well.

"You…"

"Couldn't have done without it," Yoh finished, and her arms were around him tightly again. Just as he had never felt so cold earlier that day, there in her embrace he felt warmth of a new kind. Surely Yoh experienced his fair share of brushes with death, but love is a celebration of life; and kisses, exclamations of joy. It was one such exclamation that Yoh and Anna shared there, and their happiness exorcised any remaining traces of despair from his chest, banished them as surely as the broken husk of a demon that lurched, impaled, behind them. Their supple lips fused like wax, warm and sensual, and Ren was dignified enough to suddenly become very interested in the dead _oni_ until, at long last, the kiss concluded…

"Well, the dirty old man was right about one thing," Anna breathed after they had stared wordlessly, yet gently, at each other for several moments.

"What's that?"

"We should get a room."

Yoh stared, half incredulously, half excitedly, at Anna, until she snapped, "A _hospital_ room, of course!"

He smiled. "Of course, Anna. Of course."


	20. Cold Turkey

Summary: Thanksgiving arrives at the En Inn, but one of its residents is a bit under the weather, leaving the other alone for the turkey dinner. What's in store for them?

Written: Uhh, obviously I missed my projected Thanksgiving Day deadline for this piece. What can I say, other than "school bites"? (Finished 11/28/07, only 6 days late!)

Rating: T for suggestive themes and coarse language.

Comments: I just had to write a Thanksgiving bit. I found (I think) the perfect title for it, you'll see why ;) Enjoy!

Cold Turkey

_Kiss #19_

_"I'm thinking of a brand new hope, the one I've never known, '__cause__ now I know it's all that I wanted."_

_-Green Day, _Macy's Day Parade

Anna didn't like to confess it to anyone, much less her naïve fiancé, but she usually delegated the task of cooking dinner to him for a better reason than sheer laziness. Truth be told, she wasn't exactly well versed in the culinary arts. Neither was Yoh, really, but at least he made a convenient scapegoat whenever a dish came out too salty, too spicy, or charred beyond recognition. The kitchen resembled a makeshift chemistry lab now, with bowls, boxes, spoons and cups randomly strewn about, each dripping, oozing, or otherwise leaking a unique liquid onto the countertop. At the center was Anna, whose standard black outfit was obscured by a badly stained apron, frowning at a cookbook in a manner all too familiar to any student who's ever crammed right before a test.

She didn't panic, though—she knew she had a cheat sheet up her sleeve. Taking a deep breath and defiantly slamming her egg whisk onto the countertop, she tossed her head back, forcing herself to unwind like her hair, and took several confident strides up the stairs. "Yoh, you've slept long enough." She spoke in a voice that was at once monotone and exhorting, one that made throats tighten and palms sweat despite not being particularly malicious or even loud.

"Didn't you hear me? Our guests will be over for the Thanksgiving dinner soon. If everything isn't cooked by then, it'll be your ass on the line." Only now did Anna's voice betray even the slightest hint of annoyance, which normally was a warning signal.

The form beneath the sheets, however, remained still. It faced away from her, and only the top of his head was visible, just a few inches of messy black hair upon the mattress.

"Yoh, you bum—" Anna had placed her hands on both sides of Yoh's head with the intention of roughly drawing the sheets down, but instead paused. Gently she nudged the blanket lower, and stopped, feeling slightly embarrassed yet excited when she realized he was shirtless beneath the covers. But there was a heat of a different kind that gave Anna pause then. A delicate frown crossed her brow as she cocked her head to one side. Was it just her imagination, or did Yoh definitely look just a bit paler than usual? She dotingly brushed a few matted hairs off his forehead and laid her palm upon its surface.

"No…" As soon as she felt the clammy, intense heat of Yoh's brow, she realized why he had been unresponsive. At her touch, however, he stirred, rolling over until he was flat on his back. Groggily, he gave a noncommittal blink, followed by a couple more—and then unceremoniously gave a great hacking cough into Anna's face.

"Eek!"

With a final blink and a gross throat-clearing, Yoh grimaced. "H-hey, sorry about that, Anna."

"Say it, don't spray it," she sighed, dabbing at her face with the spotty apron.

Propping an elbow up on the mattress, Yoh looked as though he were about to rise from bed, but with a tremendous groan, he appeared to reconsider. "Agh, Anna, I…don't feel so well. I think I might be a little sick?"

"You don't say," she shot back. "Well, I don't see how forcing you to baste and batter is going to do you—or our guests, for that matter—any good."

Yoh could only manage a weak nod.

"I…" Anna felt a disarming pang of sympathy right then, as she looked into Yoh's half-closed eyes. "You better stay hydrated, Yoh. Let me…I'll be right back with some water."

She almost regretted her magnanimous gesture when she found herself back in the kitchen. The collage of pots, pans and bowls reminded her of why she had gone up to visit Yoh in the first place. She bit back her anxiety, though, and trudged back upstairs, a frosty glass of water in each hand.

"Thanks," Yoh acknowledged, his voice raspy.

"Yoh…I need your help."

There was the slightest hesitation in Yoh's reaction, but it was gone before Anna could blink. A look of sheer torment crossed his face briefly as he sat up. "Sure thing, Anna."

Yoh's cheesy grin looked somewhat more strained than usual, but its sincerity shone through. Anna stood thunderstruck before his sitting figure, moved by his gesture of selfless devotion, and for a moment she was thankful for his rescue, but even she had a heart sometimes…

"No!"

Yoh choked on his gulp of water; with his already agitated throat, it sent him into a severe coughing fit. Anna took a timid step forward, and followed it up with a confident one, and her hand gently rapped his bare back to ease the coughs. Although he had been somewhat pale earlier, it now almost appeared to Anna that he was blushing, but he was in good company…

"Err," Anna hastened to clarify, her eyes now looking anywhere but Yoh's naked torso, "I meant…I should let you rest and get better. But I was wondering if you could offer some suggestions for my cooking."

"Oh." An almost relieved look crossed Yoh's face. He relaxed and reclined onto the mattress once more; Anna drew back her hand much more sharply than she would have liked. "Well, I dunno…Don't overdo the turkey, it'll only make it drier. Oregano and basil in the stuffing, but just a pinch. And remember, the rule of thumb for pumpkin pie is, when in doubt, more sugar and less cinnamon."

Anna nodded, but said nothing; it appeared to Yoh that she was expecting more.

"Oh, Anna, what are you trying to pull? We both know I'm mediocre at best in terms of cooking. Your dinner will be delicious. I only wish I could taste some of it tonight."

"Th-thanks, Yoh." She didn't quite know what possessed her to be so…tender with Yoh that afternoon, but she rearranged the blanket and tousled his hair fondly before she left.

_If only I were half as confident as you are in my skill,_ Anna thought as she ambled downstairs, not really wanting to return to the kitchen but knowing it was inevitable…

--------------------------------

"Geez, Ren, save some cranberry sauce for the rest of us!" Horohoro reprimanded, his large eyes stretched even wider upon seeing the huge quivering vermillion slab atop Ren's spoon.

"It's not my fault the turkey turned out so damn dry," he shot back, looking smug for a split second before catching a glimpse of Anna's livid, slap-happy face. "Er, I mean, maybe…uh, wouldja pass the gravy, Ryu?"

"Certainly," came the deep-voiced reply, and a thick, hairy arm maneuvered the gravy boat across the table.

"But seriously," Ren began through a mouthful of turkey once Anna looked slightly mollified, "this is surprisingly good."

"_Surprisingly_ good?!" cried Anna. "What's so surprising about it, huh? Are you saying I'm usually a bad cook?"

The gravy arrived and Ryu's now free hand now descended lightly upon Anna's shoulder. "Anna, come now, has Ren ever been loose with his compliments? This is high praise, relatively speaking, and well-deserved high praise at that."

She chanced a glance at Ren, who now looked bashful, spooning gravy onto his plate docilely. "I…You're right, Ryu. After all, this is Thanksgiving."

"Indeed it is, Lady Anna, and this momentous day has arrived just in time!" That unique expression was beginning to cement itself on Ryu's countenance, one that, if anything, accentuated his wild hairdo. "There is so much to be thankful for this year. I am, for the third year running, indebted to you and Master Yoh for all you have done for me."

Anna nodded vaguely; she never quite knew how to handle Ryu once he got on a roll.

"If it weren't for Master Yoh's sagacity, I never—" The spacey expression on his face slid right back into normalcy. "But…Anna, where is Master Yoh?"

"Well," Anna began impassively, "if the cooking is better than usual, it's because I had to do it all by myself. Yoh isn't feeling well."

"What's the matter with Master Yoh?" beseeched Ryu, who looked as though he might sweep himself off his chair to prostrate himself before Anna.

"Oh," Horohoro interjected with an energetic smirk contorting his lips, "I expect he must be tired from all the se—"

"H-he wishes," Anna stammered, her cheeks a bit too red to be entirely truthful…

Ryu gave a low whistle from between his teeth, while Ren merely rolled his eyes and sank his knife into a slab of turkey with a bit more force than he intended. After a few seconds of dead silence crawled past, the snowboarder broke the silence.

"I, for one, am happy for the both of you. And I'm really glad things turned out the way they did. I couldn't ask for better friends. Or, well, let's not get greedy."

Anna looked mutinous.

"I'm just kidding! I love you guys." With that Horohoro threw his arms out, as though jumping off a diving board, and clasped them around Ren's neck, giving him a vigorous shake.

"Don't…touch me."

"Fair enough," the Ainu agreed. "But come on, little man, what're you thankful for this turkey day?"

"I am glad," he began slowly after a second's pause, "that there are so many shining examples out there of what I never want to become."

"Oh, here we go," Anna spat, thrusting her fork into her mixed vegetables so strongly that a lima bean nearly flew into the water pitcher.

"You're one to talk!" Ren blurted. "A paragon of compassion and optimism if I do say so myself!"

"I may not be the warmest person, but I don't hate the whole world irrationally."

"Yeah, you only push away the people who are closest to you!"

"Whereas you embrace us with open arms. Give me a break."

"Soooo," Horohoro broke in, "about that football—"

"I can't help it that I was raised by a paranoid, misanthropic tyrant of a father!" Ren bellowed, slamming his palm onto the tabletop, not even noticing the knife he had left there.

"Ah. And so it must've been my choice, then, to fall captive to a demon in my childhood. Very astute, Ren."

"Ugh, why do you always have to be such a bit—"

"You're so emo all the time—"

Ryu put down his glass of water calmly and finally resolved himself to speak, choosing his words carefully. "If I may?"

Neither Ren nor Anna interposed, although they seemed to stare right through him in order to continue glaring at one another.

"Let's try to be civil one day of the year. Thanksgiving seems as good a choice as any."

Looking as though he had just swallowed a cyanide pill…vomit-flavored…and lined with razor blades…Ren sat down again, as slowly as he could. Anna looked no less resentful, but nonetheless resumed her seat.

"How heartwarming. It occurs to me," Ryu continued, his prominent eyelashes pointing at Anna first, and then Ren, "that the two of you are not exactly on the best of terms."

"No. Really?"

"Horohoro, please." He merely shrugged and continued playing with his mashed potatoes. "Now then. Don't you find it ironic that you dislike each other with such intensity?"

"What's so ironic about it?" Anna's query was plaintive as usual.

"Both of you are children of unspeakable tragedy, whose very personalities were shaped by events completely outside the realm of your control. But more importantly, I do not think the apple has fallen far from the tree for either of you."

Ren and Anna ceased staring through Ryu, and now stared directly at him, the air among them taut with expectant silence.

"Yes, the tree of tragedy has borne both of you, and while you may be loath to admit it, you are more alike than you might think."

The silence persisted a few scant seconds longer, until the bubble burst.

"What? No way. I—"

"That's a crock! He—"

"But how can we be so…she's so cold—"

"I won't acknowledge that with a—"

Ren ran out of babbled retorts at exactly the same time Anna did, with the end result that both stared at each other, mouths agape, wrestling with the truth that slowly dawned on them.

"I think the two of you," Ryu said at last, "could learn and grow much from becoming closer friends. But more importantly for the moment, I think it's time for dessert."

He headed towards the kitchen, leaving the two to continue gaping at one another. Gradually they came to terms with the truth of Ryu's words. Anna favored Ren with a hollow smile—it may have been begrudging, but it was still a smile. Ren acknowledged it with a curt nod—it may have been stiff, but it was still an agreement.

"Geez, would the two of you lighten up? It's like I'm in a room with, oh, I don't know, Ren's dad and an _oni_ in here!"

Both Ren and Anna rounded on Horohoro, who fought off their stares with a truly heroic shit-eating grin. It looked like they had finally found something they both unflinchingly agreed upon…

--------------------------------

Almost robotically, Anna tackled the mountain of dirty dishes in the sink one at a time. Her slender fingers combated caked food and congealed gravy, but she seemed preoccupied even though she finished the task methodically. There was one plate remaining on the kitchen table, and she picked it up before heading upstairs.

Even though she knew he had to still be there in his room, the sight of Yoh lying atop his bed stopped Anna in her tracks for a second. His body lay in a fetal position, bare save for a pair of boxers, and his thin yet sinewy arms caressed a ruffled pillow.

She hesitated again, but breathed deeply, and placed the plate on the nightstand. "Yoh," she whispered, kneeling just inches above his ear.

"Mmm…not yet, Grandpa, gimme five more minutes," he mumbled, rolling over and taking the pillow with him.

"Yoh?" she repeated, a little louder.

That got Yoh's eyes open, slowly. His arms abandoned the pillow, and his hands rubbed his eyes. "Anna? Oh, how was the dinner?"

"Feeling better, Yoh?" she pressed, sidestepping the question. The dinner itself was palatable, perhaps even good, but something that Ren had said stuck with her still…

"Yeah, actually. I guess I just needed to sleep it off, whatever it was."

"Good, good…There's only dessert left, I tried to save you some turkey, but…" Anna's voice trailed off, but even without that, Yoh sensed something was off-kilter. He sat upright and turned his head sideways, his eyes focused in the vicinity of her brow.

"Don't worry about it. Are you…okay, Anna?"

She began to nod, but abruptly clasped Yoh's left hand tightly. "Oh, Yoh…tell me…You don't think I'm…cold, do you?"

Even she seemed surprised by her query, as though she hadn't known that Ren's accusations had bothered her so.

With his free hand, Yoh caressed Anna's forehead. He had, as usual, taken Anna too literally.

"No...you're nice and warm, Anna."

She was just about to clarify before he continued.

"Sure, you can be cold sometimes." His hand lifted from her brow and tickled down her cheek until its fingers glided upon her chin. "Who isn't? But other times, you're so…so warm, you know? Like the way your hair is golden and light, like the best part of a sunset, or your eyes, they're always kind of…burning with a passion. Or even now," he said, moving his right hand so that he was now returning the favor and caressing Anna's hands, "this warmth, or…"

Yoh rose off the bed in one fluid motion, until he stood directly before Anna. He could smell the scents of hard work in the kitchen wafting off her petite frame: the fresh-lemon scent of detergent, a whiff of pumpkin pie spices, a trace of savory gravy. He grasped her wrist gently and laid her hand upon his bare chest. He placed his palm upon her heart; both of their pulses were quick and palpably warm.

"Feel that. Our hearts beat as one, and this…is the strongest warmth."

Anna looked up into Yoh's eyes, feeling his pulse against her palm, and it was indeed very warm. "Almost, but not quite," she corrected.

And then, instantly seeing the error of his presumption, Yoh felt the intense heat of Anna's lips upon his, a malleable warmth that flowed back and forth as his arms tightened around her back and their tongues touched, then cavorted. The heat radiated outwards; he felt it seeping into his chest from hers, and tingling at his legs, but it was still most powerful at their lips, almost as though they had fused together from the passion. Fortunately, they hadn't, as they gradually discovered, and Anna propped her chin upon Yoh's shoulder.

"Happy Thanksgiving, Yoh."

"You too, Anna."

The plate of dessert went untouched upon the nightstand, warming up in the still air. But Yoh held in his arms something ten times sweeter and already very warm, and he was thankful for whatever he had done to deserve her…


	21. Forget December

Summary: There's certainly a lack of merriment in this first part of a holiday-themed two-shot. Find out why…

Written: The important thing is it's done, right? Heh. Finished on 12/22/07.

Rating: **K+** for **angst**, **coarse language** and **romantic themes**. (It's the first chapter of this collection to _not_ be rated T or higher. Am I losing my touch?!)

Edit (12/23): Corrected a missing space break and punctuation marks, etc. (This site really doesn't like asterisks or brackets; they keep disappearing from my documents...)

Forget December

_Kiss #20_

_"Our silent night won't feel quite right—it's not so silent anymore…"_

_-Something Corporate, _Forget December

Yoh shuddered as he threw on a long-sleeve T-shirt. It had been getting colder recently, and although he was accustomed to discomfort, there was no denying the distinct chill in the air. _I better bring a jacket,_ he realized as the cold penetrated even the thick sleeves of his shirt.

He saw Anna as he made his way downstairs, huddled over a steaming mug of coffee he had prepared earlier that morning. She looked even more tired than he felt, her knotty hair sprawled in every direction around her neck, her hazy eyes not quite reading the newspaper before her.

"Good morning, Anna," Yoh offered with a broad grin.

"Mmm," she grunted. Yoh's chipper posture deflated a bit at the unfriendly reception, but Anna didn't notice. She didn't even glance up from the paper she wasn't reading. He shrugged and continued towards the door. A second before he departed, a plaintive voice called out behind him. "By the way, Yoh…"

"Hm?" Wide-eyed and attentive, he turned around in the doorframe.

"The circus called. They want their jacket back."

Yoh looked down at what he was wearing. He hadn't cared about its appearance, it being the only one in his wardrobe that still fit, but now it began to sink in that it was a bit…gaudy, to put it mildly. Bright red, emblazoned with golden stitching, green pocket flaps, blue zippers and a yellow hood, it did look a little clownish, to say the least.

But Yoh smirked. "You're funny, Anna," he replied, without so much as a trace of irony. With that, he continued out the door. Once it was shut behind him, he sighed, watching his wispy exhalations disperse into the wintry air. It was a strange change of pace for him, not departing from the inn with a brisk jog, but rather a leisurely stride. Yoh felt a bit like a dragon as he walked, feeling the cold air stinging his lungs and exiting in jets of vaporous steam, and the miles passed quickly. He also felt the sting of that morning's exchange with Anna, but it was quickly forgotten as he watched his puffs of breath dissipate….

Soon Yoh found himself in the bustle of downtown, jostling with the crowds who choked the sidewalk. They flowed like water, dammed up by street vendors or traffic signals, and when the dams broke they flooded through with frightening speed. Before a nondescript brick building Yoh turned abruptly and scaled a flight of rickety stairs. Through the foggy, grimy windows he couldn't see anything, and no sign was posted above the door, but the sounds of metal clanking told him he was at the right place.

"_Irasshaimase_ (Welcome)," called a clearly unenthusiastic voice from behind the counter once Yoh swung the door open. "Membership card, please."

Yoh pulled off his jacket and slung it over his shoulder. He looked up at the man behind the counter and swallowed. "I don't have one, but…I was told my fiancée called ahead and made arrangements for me? Is that right?"

The receptionist favored Yoh with an unreadable, hard stare for a good ten seconds before something clicked in his head. Recoiling suddenly, he gave an audible gulp. "You're going to marry...what did she say her name was...Anna? Yeah, she called us yesterday. Let me tell you, what she wants, she gets…You're free to use the facilities. And good luck once you're married," he finished, walking around the counter to give Yoh a clap on the shoulder. "I think you'll need it."

"T-thanks," stammered Yoh, jarred both by the strength of his "friendly" shoulder nudge and by his assessment of his fiancée. It was only then, after he had surrounded himself with the assorted equipment in the gym, that he really had no idea what to do with any of them.

"Well, let's see here," he muttered to no one in particular. "Looks like I put these weights onto this bar, and then I lift it over my chest." He bent over to retrieve the largest plate on the rack. "Ugh…wow, this is pretty heavy…maybe not quite this much yet," he conceded, replacing it with a lighter one.

He positioned himself upon the disturbingly clammy cushions of the bench press. "Now, I think I…oof!" The bar was heavier than Yoh had expected—much heavier, in fact. He let it rest upon his chest, and rolled it quickly down his body until he could get up.

_Okay, take two, _he thought as he positioned the lightened bar above his chest. "Uhhh!" _One._"Yaaah!" _Two.__ Hmm, I think I'm getting the hang of this…_

"Hey, Shotaro," a voice from the reception area echoed off the walls and interrupted Yoh's thoughts. "Once your shift is done, wanna go and have a beer?"

"Sure," came the reply, and Yoh recognized the voice as the receptionist he had just met. "Boy, I could sure use one after that young lady who called the other day…" That got Yoh's attention quick.

"Oh yeah? What happened then?"

"Just…you ever get the chills from talking to someone on the phone? Nah, I didn't think so. Well this girl, holy crap, such a cold voice, so demanding, and if you try to say no to her, God help you…"

A boisterous laugh resonated throughout the gym. "You sure this girl who called isn't my ex? Sounds like it could be."

Another laugh joined in. "Could be, man."

Yoh felt a sudden heaviness in his chest, one that had nothing to do with the weightlifting. As he replaced the bar and staggered his way towards another exotic-looking piece of weight room machinery, the words replayed through his mind inexorably. _Cold weather, cold fiancée, at least I know one will change come springtime…_

_But Anna has been even more frigid than usual lately. No idea why, either. _His thoughts continued racing through his mind even as he pulled and replaced the pin on the stack of weights until his legs finally managed to lift them up. _I wonder if it's something I did, or haven't done, or should do…in any case, probably my fault as usual…_

_What could it be, though? Anna's got me on my august toes every waking hour. With my plate full like this, how can she expect me to know what's bothering her, much less do something about it?_ Yoh was standing now before a hanger-shaped metal bar suspended by an anodized metal cable winched on a pulley. It looked to him more like a set piece for a sci-fi robot flick than a piece of fitness equipment, but by watching another gym patron he realized what he was supposed to do. _This is no good, I'm practically hanging off this bar and it isn't moving. Maybe if I do the same thing as I did with the leg press…_

Having removed a couple hundred pounds from the deadweight, Yoh now felt a reassuring burn in his shoulder muscles. _See, I think I'm a pretty good problem-solver. So why can't I ever seem to make Anna happy? You'd think I'd do something right with her every now and then, the way it is with everything else I do in life…_

_Ah, at last, something I've got a vague idea of how to use,_ he thought as he wobbled his way towards a rack of dumbbells of various weights. _Whoa, way too heavy…nah, these are a bit too light, I think…_A spotted mirror, blemished in spots and fractured with webs of hairline cracks in others, returned Yoh's strained gaze. He resisted the urge to laugh despite the strain of his weightlifting. _Looks a little like I'm both constipated and furious. __Kinda__ reminds me of Anna in a slightly bad mood…well, you know, they say couples start to look more alike the longer they live together,_ and at that a little laugh did escape from between his taut lips.

Despite his physical exertion and the moody nature of his thoughts, he felt strangely energized as he heaved the dumbbells back onto the rack and headed for the door. The proprietor waved rather stiffly to him as he pulled on his jacket and descended the staircase. The throng of window shoppers had not thinned, and as Yoh merged his way into its flow he wondered what had brought such heavy foot traffic to the downtown area. Though he was not claustrophobic, the massive crowd made him uneasy in some way he couldn't quite define, and he tried to tune out the noise they generated as he began walking back home, but not well enough to avoid hearing the clarion voice that called out to him then:

"Hey, nice jacket, Yoh!"

Though he began looking around once he heard it, he didn't see anyone he recognized at first. Then he noticed the crowd beginning to part down the middle, some of them looking down as they shuffled aside, until a humorously diminutive boy scuttled through the channel, waving up at Yoh with a compact hand.

"What's up, Manta?" he asked, subconsciously crossing his arms to cover the most egregious parts of his multicolored jacket. "And…well, what's with the box?"

"Just getting back from some last-minute Christmas shopping," Manta replied. Indeed the box, which was easily as high as Manta and nearly twice as wide, looked patently ridiculous in his arms. "Actually, I may as well give you yours now, since you're here…Yoh? _Yoh?!_"

He showed no signs of having even heard Manta at all, and stood statuesque as the crowd, with a flurry of disgruntled murmurs, began to push their way around him and Manta. Finally, when Manta began to shake Yoh by the leg in an attempt to get his attention, he spoke faintly, "My…my present?"

"Yeah. Yoh, it's totally cool if you didn't get me anything. I…your friendship is enough of a gift for me."

"No—I mean," he stammered, taken aback by the sweetness of Manta's mistaken comment, "that is, uh…it's _Christmastime_ already?!"

This time, Manta found himself utterly speechless. "Yoh…come on, even you can't be that much of a space cadet. I mean…look around you, seriously."

Yoh looked up at the marquees and balconies surrounding him. A festive army of red suits, plastic snowmen and stuffed reindeer bore down on him, armed with giant candy canes and festooned with immense strands of garland and colored lights.

"Geez…it's Christmastime already," he said, his neck still craned up at the holiday panorama.

"I really don't know what to say, Yoh," Manta said carefully, more afraid than amused at Yoh's heroic display of spaciness. "Haven't you been looking forward to the gifts, and the holiday spirit, and the gifts, and the merriment, and did I mention the gifts?"

"Manta," answered Yoh, who at that moment felt the adrenaline from his exercises wearing off and being replaced by a dull, fatiguing ache, "when you're training under the supervision of someone like Anna on a daily basis, you look forward to more short-term goals. Like being able to have lunch. Or staying alive until tomorrow. When you've got your hands full with things you hate to do, you kind of forget that good things like Christmas happen at all, much less _when_ they do."

"No offense," Manta observed after a brief pause, "but I sort of figured Anna was responsible for your lapse of memory somehow. She doesn't seem like the type to spontaneously erupt in the holiday spirit. Well, maybe my gift will brighten your house a bit."

Manta put the box on the sidewalk and withdrew from it a bucket-sized pot. It was packed with fertile soil, from which a stout pine sapling grew. Yoh was impressed both with the gift, and by Manta's ability to carry something so heavy with him.

"Merry Christmas, Yoh."

"Thanks, Manta," he said, wincing as he picked up the pot. Even with freshly rested arms, Yoh thought it might have been an uncomfortable load; with his achy, exerted muscles it felt almost impossible. "And Merry Christmas to you too."

Indeed, although he felt foolish for his oversight of Christmas, and although his arms throbbed in protest as he lugged the pot with him, Yoh felt reassured as he said goodbye to Manta and began making his way home. The endorphins released by his workout would not be deterred by something so silly, and he made good time despite having to rest every block or so. It was not until the office buildings and malls of downtown were several miles behind him and the sun nearly completely set that his oddly good mood vaporized…

"Oh, shit."

_I have to get a present for Anna!_

_Well, I could pass off this pine sapling as a—Oh God, what am I thinking?! How could I even consider __regifting__ this, after all Manta went through to get it for me? Besides, I think it'd look pretty good in my room…Damn, I can worry about morals and interior design later. What the hell am I going to get for Anna?_

_I…I guess I can worry about that later. I've still got a whole day to get something. __Yeah, I'll think of something, I'm sure. I'm a problem-solver! Even though I could stand to work on my ability to notice things like national holidays…_

_---------------------_

A visitor to the En Inn would be hard-pressed to guess that Christmas was just around the corner—or even that it was currently inhabited. Upstairs, both beds lay unoccupied and pristine, the sheets and pillows arranged with maid-like precision, and the only sound was the hollow howl of an occasional gust of wind hissing through one of the slightly ajar windows. Downstairs, the scene was just as dark; the television lay dormant, the couch was cold from an evening without a body to keep it warm. Even if the interior was brightly lit, an observer would note the conspicuous lack of holiday décor. No tinsel was present to glimmer from the doorways; no glass spheres of red and silver and green hung from the boughs of a fir tree that was also absent. The kitchen was filled not with scents of pine or roasted chestnuts, and the mug on the table was filled not with eggnog, but rather with coffee long gone cold. Framed in the moonlight was a human figure—slumped over in a chair and immobile, but a sign of life nonetheless—face buried in a pair of slender arms streaked with smears from the newspaper beneath them.

A sliver of ghostly light intruded into the kitchen then, like an evanescent scepter of pale white, as Yoh prodded open the front door. A loud clunk echoed off the wooden floor, followed by a relieved grunt. "Anna? I'm home…"

The human figure in the kitchen stirred—nay, sprung to life. She hurriedly straightened up in her seat and ruffled the newspaper. "Yoh…"

He nearly tripped over the potted pine he had just placed on the floor, and not because of the darkness, either. _Why does Anna's voice sound so…croaky?_ He turned on the light and was about to make his way over to the kitchen, but she appeared in the doorway just then. She looked a bit disoriented, perhaps even disheveled; Yoh noted her usually vibrant hair was still, as it had been that morning, messy and flattened, and perhaps it was due to the sudden surge of light in the room, but her eyes seemed awfully puffy…

"What have you got there?" Yoh now could see that Anna's eyes were definitely reddened, and the faintest traces of something crusted onto her cheeks glowed dully as she drew nearer to him. "Oh, a little pine tree? Yes, I…it's Chri—that time of year again, isn't it…" As she spoke Yoh backed away unconsciously. The expression on Anna's face bordered on manic; even her voice crackled and brimmed with perkiness and joy that sounded sickeningly forced.

"Anna," and even as the words left his mouth he had no idea why he was even asking, "are you feeling all right?"

"Yes," she said, even as everything else about her—the bloodshot eyes that avoided his, the artificial cheerfulness in her voice, the clenching fists that belied her words—screamed the opposite. "Couldn't be better. I expect you must be tired from that gym appointment I set up, so why not hit the shower—"

_That's the truest thing she's said so far, _Yoh thought. Indeed, he feared his arms might never be able to unbend from the cramps that now locked them rigidly crooked. But cramps or no cramps, Yoh wasn't going to let Anna take to bed whatever was bothering her…

"I will, thanks," he broke in. "But first, even I can tell you're hiding something. Now I'd like to know what it is."

A chill ran up Yoh's spine as he finished speaking, as though he had just realized the full gravity of what he had said. _Anna's hiding something from me…and all this time I thought nothing could ever give her pause…_

"You…" Anna took a shaky step backward and took a deep breath, as though sizing up the situation. "You don't want to know. Don't worry about it."

For a second Yoh looked as though he would back off, but he quickly thought better of it. His eyes steeled themselves and his aching chest expanded as he took a deep breath, then another. He took a few tentative steps toward Anna, his determined eyes looking anywhere but her quivering figure. At last, standing close enough to Anna to smell the dried tears on her cheeks, he spoke.

"Anna…I want to know, because…well, damn it, I care about you. More than anything or anyone else. And I worry about it, because of all that you do for me. Your problems are mine as well."

They had both been avoiding overt eye contact up until that very moment, when their pupils seemed to latch on to one another. In Anna's tormented eyes Yoh could see anxiety and grief, and the moist reflection of his own anguished stare…

"Okay, Yoh."

She sounded defeated and hopeless; had Yoh not been standing so close to her, he never would have believed such a pitiful utterance had come from his resilient, emotionless fiancée. "I can't stand this time of year. All the merriment, the exchanging presents with friends, the spending Christmas Eve with the family. It's…I can't take it, Yoh, I just can't…"

Anna turned her back on Yoh in a flash of blonde and black; he felt her hairs glide upon his face in a whoosh of stale coffee and fresh tears. "But Yoh, where is _my_ family? Where are _my_ friends? Whose presents do _I_ open on December twenty-fifth? This season just reminds me of…Oh, Yoh, why does everyone hate me?"

Her voice, muffled by her hands, began to break with outbursts of primal emotion; her breaths grew shallower and more erratic, and although her back was still turned to Yoh he imagined her tormented face, could palpably feel the ache in her heart, but he could find nothing to say…

"I don't know why I'm telling you all this," she said, but her voice sounded neither regretful nor bitter, but rather was despondent. "It's not as though you would…you could understand…"

"Anna," Yoh began finally, not knowing what to say or how to make a point, but knowing above all else that he should say _something_, "my shaman training began in my infancy. Even if I were socially adept back then, and I wasn't, between all the homework and the training, I never would have had time to make any friends. Besides, you can imagine how popular I was in school. No other elementary kid could conjure spirits in the classroom. And you know how rumors are. One day you're a shaman, next week you're a serial killer who shoots lightning bolts from his forehead. No, Anna, I know how tough it is to go without friends."

Yoh timidly placed a reassuring hand on Anna's shoulder, but it was shrugged off rather violently. She rounded on him and Yoh flinched at her vitriolic expression. "No, Yoh, it's not the same! You're not alone anymore—Manta, Horohoro, Ren! You don't know what it's like to sit at home all alone while knowing your fiancé could very well come back home in a pressboard coffin! It's—"

Anna broke off abruptly once she realized what she had just let slip. She also happened to see Yoh's expression at that particular moment; there was no denying that her candid confessions had touched him, moved him to that particular mix of sympathy and caring that radiates so plainly from eyes…

"Yoh…don't look at me…"

But Yoh could not take his eyes off of Anna's grieving figure, as it slowly rose up the stairs, face still buried in a pale hand. His strained muscles, his exhausted emotions, his bruised holiday spirit, all could take no more, and he collapsed to the floor beside the potted pine sapling. Slowly he cradled his head in both his hands, the faint pine scent keeping him from screaming and fainting all at once. He didn't know how long he stayed there, staring into the nothingness of the far wall, mulling over the course of action he knew was inevitable, but it must have been quite a while—by the time he made his way upstairs, Anna lay on her bed surrounded by darkness.

"Anna?" he called. He expected no reply and received none. He stood before her motionless figure now, and her puffy nose attested to a recent outpouring of emotion. She was on her back, the fluffy white pillow upon her chest loosely cradled in both her arms. Her anguished face, save for the agitated nose, was now at peace. Yoh gently brushed aside a few wayward strands of her flaxen hair and knelt down. She was dreaming now, probably, of acceptance, of popularity, in a utopia someplace where shamans weren't shunned, although Yoh could see her body still rooted in a bed in modern Japan…

"Oh, Anna," he whispered, unable to stop himself, "if only you could see…I'll be your best friend, the only friend you'll ever need. I…I love you."

Still unable to restrain himself, Yoh placed one of his hands upon hers, feeling the softness of the pillow beneath, and bowed his head slightly. He planted a chaste kiss upon her cheek, and the salty nuance of dried tears stung at his caring lips…

"No…no more tears, Anna," and his whispers were hoarse now, as though Yoh himself were about to break down. "You'll see…"

Yoh stood back up and headed to his room, but not before he could have sworn he saw a faint smile play upon Anna's lips. Maybe he even saw her arms tighten around the pillow, or perhaps that was just his imagination…

_Concludes in Kiss #21, "The Gift of the Shaman"_


	22. The Gift of the Shaman

Summary: On a shoestring budget, Yoh wants to get Anna a good Christmas present, and finds a solution. What's the catch? And will Anna even accept the present if and when he gets it, after what happened last night? Find out in this conclusion to "Forget December."

Written: Actually finished this in a single day (12/23). Didn't publish it immediately because I wanted to get more reviews from the other story first. (Hint, hint ;) )

Rating: **T** for **romance**.

Notes: Inspired by the classic short story "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry.

Also, I will be away from home (and my computer) until 1/3/08. Hopefully you like this story enough to forgive me for the fact I won't be able to write a New Year's story like I wanted. Enjoy!

The Gift of the Shaman

_Kiss #21_

All was quiet in the cool pre-dawn air of the Funbari Hill neighborhood. Its darkened sidewalks and streets all lay bare, and neither headlight nor porch light disturbed the early morning gloom. A resonant reggae voice, however, leaked through the pair of bright orange headphones that floated above the pavement, making its way slowly towards downtown. Upon closer inspection, the headphones were in fact anchored upon the drowsy yet tranquil face of Yoh Asakura, its eyes sedate, gently bobbing to and fro with the soulful beat.

Another sound peeped through the blanket of silence, above Yoh's soft footfalls: the unmistakable jingle of coins. Yoh had counted it at least two or three times by the dim light of his nightstand lamp before he had left that morning. Two hundred and sixty-nine yen, all in small coins, found five or ten at a time in nooks and crannies in his room, in the dusty crevasses beneath furniture and between cushions, in pockets of pants that he had long ago outgrown.

Two hundred and sixty-nine yen—and the morning of Christmas Eve would be arriving within the hour. Yoh felt the coins slamming against his leg in his threadbare pocket, the implied parsimony of those copper and aluminum coins worrying him almost as much as their lack of buying power. He vaguely hoped for some sort of miracle as the tall buildings of downtown loomed ever larger near the horizon, but the music oozing through his headphones assuaged his anxieties somewhat. Nonetheless, he kept his eyes fixed upon the sidewalk for the most part, hoping to stumble upon a cache of dropped money, perhaps, or a misplaced piece of jewelry, in the lightening darkness…

Christmas miracles abound in movies, on TV and even in anime and manga, but for Yoh there would be none. The sun rose and cast brazen light upon the sidewalk, which he now saw was strewn with pebbles, cracks and weeds, but bereft of even a lowly one-yen coin. His mind wandered, through a web of steel drums and distorted guitars, to Anna, who had still been sleeping when he crept out of the house a few minutes before five. The pillow was still tightly clutched in her arms, its downy form nestled just below her chin. She had looked so blissful there, in the folds of her dream, and Yoh wanted on some level to make it a reality once she awoke…

Cars had begun to whizz past him as the sun arced higher in the sky, driven by last-minute shoppers hoping to find some half-decent gift upon the ransacked shelves of the beleaguered shops. Apprehension joined poverty on his ever-lengthening list of troubles that morning. _Will there be _anything_ left by the time I get there, much less something I can afford?_

He would find out soon enough. Towering above Yoh now were the same holiday accoutrements he had viewed with shock yesterday, but now, even in the friendly glow of the morning light, they appeared altogether different to him. The reindeer, the snowmen, even the jolly, pudgy caricatures of Santa, all seemed to mock him as he meandered from storefront to storefront, viewing with despair the fine gifts that still remained available to those with sufficient coin…

As Yoh began to realize that his pocketful of small change would never buy a satisfactory gift in this lifetime, his pace down the street quickened along with his heartbeat and breathing. Only Soul Bob's reassuring beat in his headphones kept him from temporary insanity.

In the heart of downtown Yoh bumbled past a nondescript store, its windows barricaded from the inside with a dizzying array of gadgets and gewgaws from every facet of modern life, all competing with each other for a clear line of sight. Blenders and toaster ovens balanced upon computer monitors and printers, which themselves were propped upon chests of drawers, end tables, file cabinets, and dinner tables. A pang of grief and hesitation struck Yoh as he saw the shop and realized it was the regretful solution to the problem at hand.

He pushed his headphones back and the frenzied crowd noises rushed in to replace his favorite song. He withdrew his CD player from his pocket and popped out the disc unflinchingly. "Goodbye for now, Soul Bob," he uttered as he entered the store.

The proprietor glanced up from a computer whose guts were splayed upon the showcase to look at Yoh through thick, yellowing glasses. Behind him was a rack of secondhand musical instruments running the gamut from violins and flutes to bass guitars and trombones. "What can I do for you this Christmas Eve, son?"

"What can you give me for this?" Yoh pushed his CD player across the top of the showcase.

He picked up the Walkman with experienced, gnarled hands whose fingertips caressed its flawless surface and found each button to be in working order. The lid slid open on a well-oiled hinge and the hand held a magnifying glass now, inspecting the miniscule lens for any sign of damage. Lens, glass and player at last returned to the surface of the showcase, and the proprietor gave a satisfied smile. "Two thousand yen, young sir. Take it or leave it."

Yoh could only nod and soullessly return his smile as two crisp thousand-yen notes were pressed into his languid palm. He continued to sport the deceitful grin even as his Walkman, his trustworthy companion from countless miles run and several shaman fights that brought him to within an inch of his life, was locked into the scratched showcase beside several other CD players.

_Sometimes a little self-sacrifice can bring about a lot of happiness. I just have to remember that I'm not just pawning off a little bit of myself for the sake of a little money. After all, this is for Anna__…she's worth this and so much more…_

It was with such thoughts that Yoh tried to fill the sudden space he had created within himself with the loss of his omnipresent music player. And he was alarmed, if not altogether surprised, at the quickness with which he could exchange a precious bit of his very ethos for a couple of scraps of finely engraved paper, which in turn he traded for Anna's present—one with which he was, if not happy, then at least content, and certainly grateful to have found so close to Christmas.

Christmas, meanwhile, grew nearer and nearer as Yoh, who had by then spent nearly every last yen of his coin hoard at a gift-wrapping kiosk, set out to return home. The boisterous sounds of the shopping mob faded behind him, replaced by an auditory vacuum. The silence was ever more poignant for Yoh, as it made him painfully conscious that he was without the music that had brought him calm and serenity in so many of the past months. Music or no, however, Yoh's distance from home inevitably diminished, and just as the last rays of sunset yielded to dusk, he found himself standing before the gates of En Inn, in the same darkness that had surrounded him when he had departed that morning. The package in his grasp crinkled as the hand that held it shook with nerve. The other hand fumbled with the front door; Yoh was relieved to find the lights on inside, but the events of last night rushed back to him then. The potted pine, it seemed, had been relocated by Anna while he was gone, but had her frustrations and disillusionment gone with it? Or were they still presiding over the room and dampening Anna's holiday spirits?

Just then Yoh had that preternatural feeling that all of us get from time to time: If you think about someone hard enough, they will appear before your eyes. All Yoh saw was a swash of blonde hair flit past the doorway to the living room, but even that brief glimpse renewed, with interest, his anxiety. He swallowed with great effort, as his mouth had gone dry, and took several wobbly strides towards the living room. "Er…Anna?"

The swatch of blonde appeared in the doorway once more; this time, at the sound of the name, it stopped right when Yoh took his first step into the room, and the two nearly collided. "Yoh!"

_Is that…no way, but maybe…could that voice possibly be…happy? _he wondered, but the look on her face was unmistakable. In the surprise of nearly ramming Yoh head-on, Anna's expression was anxious like Yoh's had been just moments ago, but suffused with hope and optimism—traits which had been completely absent from her face the previous night. More importantly, the uncharacteristically happy expression did not disappear even after several moments. Yoh certainly noticed; in fact, they were both staring at one another unabashedly, two anxious yet hopeful faces not two feet apart.

"I…I got you something, Anna," he said, once he became aware of how nervous he really was. His anxious gestures gave him away, really; he was spinning the plastic bag round and round with one hand while twirling his black hair with the other. "I, well, I think you'll like it…"

Yoh drew out his present from the plastic bag, which swirled to the floor. Yoh felt _himself_ swirling downwards slightly as Anna accepted it, looking happier than he had ever dared to imagine after her devastation last night. Shreds of festive wrapping paper joined the plastic bag on the floor and Anna gave a soft squeal, her eyes opened wide—Yoh thought for a moment that he saw disappointment flash in those wide eyes, but if it was, she covered it masterfully. "My favorite actor," she gushed after a couple of deep breaths. "_Santa Meets Scrooge_," she read from the front of the DVD case. "This looks…really good, Yoh…"

"I thought the plot might appeal to you in particular," he offered, blushing more than slightly at her satisfaction with the gift. "Would you mind…maybe we can watch it together?"

That time, Yoh was almost sure he saw something incongruous glint in Anna's eyes, but once again it was gone before he could even begin to form a comment about it. "No—I mean, not so fast, Yoh. I got to open your present. It's only fair that you get to open yours, too."

"Oh, no, actually," he said, pointing to the potted pine that Anna had apparently moved to the center of the kitchen table, "that was the only present I got this year. So—"

"You have one from me this year, Yoh."

At first, Yoh was convinced that Anna had made a slip of the tongue, but he was distantly aware that Anna was pressing a flat, square, gift-wrapped object into his immobile hands. In a parallel universe somewhere an alternate Yoh was peeling off the wrapping paper of his fiancée's present nonchalantly, as though it happened every year; but meanwhile, back on Earth, Yoh could barely steady himself enough to get his fingernails beneath the wrapping paper of his first-ever Christmas gift from her.

Convinced that it was all really happening, Yoh looked down at the now-unwrapped object in his trembling hands and felt as though he had just won an all-expenses-paid funeral service in the lottery.

"The—the new Soul Bob CD?" Yoh asked incredulously, and not just out of disbelief that Anna had gotten it for him…

"Yeah, isn't it great?" Anna asked, and she looked genuinely happy for Yoh. "I was surprised they weren't all sold out. I hope you like it!"

Yoh saw Anna's earnest face and couldn't bear to let her down. "Yeah, Anna. It's great. But let's go watch _Santa Meets Scrooge_, it's—"

"Oh Yoh," Anna rebutted, a little more strongly than she meant to, "I watch too much TV as it is. Why don't you give the new Soul Bob a listen first?"

Yoh sighed. He placed the CD upon the kitchen table and grasped his headphones with both hands. "Don't be upset, Anna," he began, his voice quivering with his hands, "but…" He lifted them off of his head and drew the cord out from his pocket, revealing that it was connected to nothing. "I sold my CD player to get the money for your present.

"But never mind that. It's the thought that counts, Anna. I can't believe you got me this CD. Now let's go watch that movie, what do you say?"

A number of emotions rushed through Anna at Yoh's confession, but all she could muster was a feeble shake of her head. "Money's always tight around here, I guess. I pawned the DVD player to scrape up the cash to pick up your CD." She placed _Santa Meets Scrooge_ on the table next to the CD and Yoh's headphones, and met Yoh's thunderstruck gaze.

"Really…you…no…but…" He still couldn't quite wrap his head around the situation. Anna making so grave a sacrifice just for his sake? But that's exactly what he had done for her that afternoon… "You didn't have to—I mean, that's wonderful—err, it sucks actually, how neither of us can use the presents, but—"

"Screw the presents." Anna stood just inches from Yoh now, and despite everything that happened, he could see clearly the easy smile that graced her countenance. Smiles complemented her already attractive face very well, on the rare occasions they appeared there, and he returned the gesture despite himself.

"Yoh, I should have listened to you last night. You were right about everything." She nestled one arm behind his back, then the other, and Yoh felt his knees buckle, from her words as well as her touch. "You are the best friend I could ever have, the only one I will ever need." Her arms, as they had around the pillow the other night, now tightened around him, and Yoh then realized his own arms, still stiff from yesterday's gym session, were likewise clasping behind Anna's back. She drew her head back slightly and saw Yoh's face. Without his signature headphones he looked somehow older, or maybe she was simply coming to realize that the often spacey young man to whom she was betrothed had, at times, wisdom and compassion far beyond his fifteen years—but in any case, it was a handsome look. Her hands loosed their grip upon his warm back and took up a tender residence on either side of his face.

"You are the only present I need, Yoh."

She saw Yoh's eyes transfixed upon her face, and noticed his face turning a delicate shade of pink. He looked as though about to speak, but he saw Anna's eyes shutting gently, and they pulled nearer to his face, and then—

Yoh staggered a bit when he felt the softness against his lips, but in the gentle yet secure embrace of Anna he merely swayed slightly, and pressed his body against hers. Together they warded off the winter's chill, and Yoh felt the vacancy from his CD player filling with a warmth that intensified as their lips and tongues glided upon each other. Anna's hair tickled Yoh's face, and even from those few strands he could tell it was back to its usual vibrancy, as was the rest of her. It filled him with an indescribable elation, one that Anna could detect upon her lips, until at last they ceased.

"Merry Christmas, Anna," he whispered.

She was, however, not looking into his eyes anymore, but rather over his shoulder. He raised his eyebrows in puzzlement, until her hands grasped his shoulders and turned him around. With arms on shoulders they looked out the window; flecks of pure white were beginning to descend upon the moonlit lawn. "Let's make this a habit, Yoh," she said with a smile. "Merry Christmas."

"Agreed," he replied, brushing her cheek with his fingertips affectionately. "But let's not make selling our own stuff to buy gifts a habit. Okay?"

"That's absolutely fine with me."

And it was fine as they stood there into the night, watching the streets and yards fill up with snow. The cold slipped in through the cracks under the windows and doors, but they paid little mind, since they basked in the warmth of the holiday spirit, their tingling bodies and, most important of all, their love for one another…

* * *

_From me to you,_

_without__ whose support I never would have written this,_

_or__ any of the other stories, for that matter…_

_Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!_


	23. The First of Many

Summary: Ren lost something at the En Inn…but he's reluctant to get more specific. And it involves Anna? You'll find out how…

Rating: **T** for **mild language** and **romance**.

Written: Finished at 4 am of 1/24/08. The all-nighters I pull for my fans! ;)

Notes: I apologize for the long wait between stories I've forced upon you. I hope this story's worth the wait! (See below for more notes)

Edit 1/29/08: Fixed a couple of typos and tried to make the plot a little clearer. (**Spoiler alert**: A few people have asked what Ren was "looking for." He's being purposely vague about this because he's a little ashamed, both of needing Yoh's help, and just for the fact that he has a crush on someone. I tried to suggest this embarrassment/shyness by having him slip up whenever Yoh addresses the topic, but I suppose I didn't do a very good job of it. In any case, the short answer is, Ren is "looking for" Yoh's advice on what to do about the girl he likes, that's all. He's just beating around the bush in telling Yoh as much.)

The First of Many

_Kiss #22_

The sunlight of the cloudless afternoon cascaded upon the tranquil suburban sidewalk of the Funbari Hill neighborhood. Birds congregated upon its mottled, warm surface, but dispersed in a frenzied flock as a lean figure loomed near. A cacophony of chirps and flutters abruptly interrupted the silence, but it was gone as quickly as it had sounded, and then only the sound of plastic bags crinkling in the gentle breeze could be heard.

A few hundred yards down the sidewalk, another young man, shorter than the first but well-built, trudged his way forward. His hands were empty, yet they were clenched as though trying to hold the breeze captive, and his eyes were narrowed although the glare was behind him.

Their paths inevitably crossed; the rustle of plastic bags shuddered through the air once more, and the taller boy gave a start of recognition. The shorter merely unclenched his fists.

"Hey, Ren," he acknowledged, giving him a slight nod. "What a surprise to see you here."

Ren returned his nod. "Not all that surprising, Yoh, seeing as I just came from your residence. Anna, I might add, was not at all amused by my presence. Or your apparent tardiness with the grocery shopping."

As though checking to make sure he was still in fact holding the aforementioned groceries, Yoh juggled the plastic bag handles in his hands. "I can't help it if the lines are long. But wait—why'd you go to my place? Forget something?"

"Ah—" Ren scratched the back of his head and looked away from Yoh's kindly gaze pointedly. "In a manner of speaking…"

"Oh? Well, I haven't seen anything out of place recently. But your memory might be jogged if we look for it together."

"Er—" He looked as though he wanted to clarify further, but settled for walking astride Yoh towards En Inn.

"So what is it, anyway?" Yoh asked, shifting one of the heavier bags from one hand to the other. "Not something small, is it?"

"I…no. It's a big deal," Ren replied after a moment's hesitation. As the words left his mouth, however, he gesticulated wildly and sputtered, "Uh, I mean, that is to say…never mind."

"Huh? So it is something small? That's fine, I was just hoping it wasn't. Once you lose things like that, they seem to be gone forever."

"Tell me about it." Once again, Ren did a double-take after he spoke, and hastened to amend, "Dah, I mean, keep a tight grasp on your small objects, yep."

"That's the story of my life," Yoh joked. "So I'm guessing it's something important to you?"

They passed beneath the archway of the En Inn enclave. "Very precious to me, yeah." Ren bonked himself on the forehead and added, "Erm, I mean, uh, well…"

He was spared scrutiny for his defensiveness as they entered Yoh's home. "I'm back!" Yoh called out as he shut the door behind his guest and himself.

"About damn time!" Anna's voice could freeze the surface of a lake. "You know what to do."

"Now then," he addressed his companion as he set the assemblage of bags upon the kitchen table. "I'd really love to help you find this misplaced object, but…Anna will kill me if dinner isn't prepared soon," he finished, lowering his voice conspiratorially. He pulled up a seat for Ren and poured him a glass of ice cold milk, and began arranging the groceries in the refrigerator. It was with some surprise, then, that Yoh turned to the cupboard and found Ren there, placing pots and pans upon the countertop.

"Are…Is everything alright, Ren?" Yoh inquired as he took one of the pans, feeling both gratitude and uneasiness.

"Why, whatever do you mean?" he countered, in a tone even stiffer than usual.

"Well, first of all," and Yoh chose his words carefully, "I don't mean to sound like an ass, but since when are you so eager to help me with making dinner?"

"We're friends, aren't we?" Ren's tone was earnest, but not convincing to Yoh's ear.

"And I don't believe you ever told me what you lost. Ren, what are you looking for?"

He did not immediately answer. Finally he said, "Why don't I assist you with the cooking? The work may…help me remember." Yoh looked mystified, but shrugged, and scooted over to make space for his erstwhile sous-chef.

Yoh ran the peeler and the grater under the stream of warm water cascading into the sink. Slivers of vibrant orange flecked into the basin as Yoh's dexterous hands smoothed over the carrots. Ren, still reticent, poured a measure of water into a blackened pot and trucked it over to the stove.

"You know, I could get used to this," Yoh mused, shearing the leaves off a stalk of celery and positioning it upon the cutting board. "It's nice having an extra pair of hands in the kitchen."

"Indeed, I don't mind assisting you. After all, cooking prowess is a trait much sought after by potential girlfriends." Ren's paring knife clattered noisily to the countertop. "Gah, I mean, hypothetically speaking of course. Just making an observation," he recovered, picking up the knife and clearing his throat overzealously.

"If…if you say so," Yoh frowned, returning his attention to the spice rack. "So did you remember?" he asked, adding a dash and a sprig to the boiling pot upon the stove. "What you were looking for, that is?" Keeping a lazy eye upon the pot, he pulled a stool out for himself and sat before Ren.

"Oh, sure," he answered, taking a pensive sip of milk, as though searching for the right words. "I lost, or rather I should say, I need you to help me find, the right thing for me to do next. You see," he finished, as Yoh filled a glass with water, "there's this girl I sort of like…"

Yoh spewed a mouthful of water clear across the kitchen in shock. His glass wobbled dangerously upon the table, and once he got a hand on it, he favored Ren with a bug-eyed stare. "Come again?"

"I'm afraid there isn't more to it than that," he offered, a bit bemused from Yoh's reaction. "Not the sort of thing I have very much experience with, so I was thinking you might be able to…_broad_en my horizons, so to speak." A smirk underlined his subtle pun.

"Well, I…don't know what to tell you." It was clear that Yoh, unsurprisingly, had missed out on Ren's double-entendre. "I don't have much experience with casting about for a girlfriend, myself. Arranged marriages are funny like that." Perhaps aware of the awkwardness of the situation, a cheesy grin sprouted upon his face.

"But clearly you have more experience with the fairer sex than I," the Chinese boy persisted behind a frosty, half-empty glass of milk. "Besides, Anna hasn't raised any objections I'm aware of over your arranged marriage. You must be doing something right, no?"

"Yes," came Yoh's stilted, sarcastic affirmation. With a gesture toward the parlor, from which the tinny sounds of a TV issued forth, he continued in a tone no less ironic, "Clearly we are the paragon of intimacy. In no way does Anna's penchant for watching primetime melodramas alone epitomize the lack of communication which, I might add, is definitely not juxtaposed upon this relationship."

This time, Ren looked as though it was his turn to perform a spit-take. "Such verbosity!"

Yoh shrugged. "Just wanted to make my point. Anna and I barely talk. And when we do, it's probably because I'm overdue for a chewing out."

"That, I think," offered Ren somewhat consolingly, "is her nature, more so than your actions. Neither can you deny the fact that, for all of her seeming insistence to the contrary, there is…something there."

Yoh looked uncomfortable and fidgeted with his collar for a few silent moments before standing up. He paced to the stove deliberately, and from behind him came Ren's surprisingly mellow voice again. "I would not be requesting your advice if I believed your love life unsuccessful. Protest all you wish, but I feel that Anna sincerely loves you." The slightest trace of bitterness crept into his voice as he said this.

Yoh said nothing and stirred the pot with a wooden spoon, somewhat more vigorously than was absolutely necessary. His gaze was transfixed upon the pot's swirling contents now, and he almost missed Ren's last comment: "You don't doubt this, do you?"

The wooden spoon clattered upon the surface of the range with a hollow thud. Yoh did not face Ren as he said, a little too aggressively to be a rhetorical question, "What does that matter?"

Ren sensed he had struck a nerve; normally he would revel in such a tactical advantage, but today his menace was soothed by romantic pursuits. "Forgive me my probing, Yoh, I wished merely to elucidate my decision to ask of your advice—"

"Then I'll give it." Yoh took a single deep breath, and then turned on Ren, his eyes glittering like warm coals. "Ren, if you like a girl, then ask her out. By all means. In my opinion love is overrated, but what do I know? Being able to choose your girlfriend for yourself—what a novel idea! Bask in your freedom! Sleep around! Find the right one! Don't end up like me!"

In spite of Yoh's tirade, Ren looked more scandalized than cowed. At the sight of Yoh's lunging figure, which convulsed violently with each labored breath, even the well-spoken Ren could find no words. At last he said, almost as though trying to convince himself, "You don't mean that, Yoh."

In one fluid motion, he strode over to his cup and drained it in a single swallow. "Take that girl out on a couple of dates. Then find out she's the kind of psycho that you've gotta always walk on eggshells around. Make a couple of honest mistakes now and then and see what kind of hell you get for them. Realize you've had enough, and then learn, surprise surprise, you're stuck with her the rest of your life. Then tell me I don't mean it."

Ren, who had always seen Yoh as the consummate happy-go-lucky kind of person, couldn't believe it. Through eyes wide as saucers he watched Yoh, perpetually cheerful Yoh, Yoh who cracked jokes in the face of death, rock back and forth on the balls of his feet, twitching and snarling with unsuppressed frustration. Hesitantly he rose, plucking up Yoh's empty cup like a taut violin string, and filled it from the sink. After some thought he placed it upon the table. "Yoh," he began in a tone that sounded equally foreign to both of their ears, "it is often said that familiarity breeds contempt."

"Ain't that the truth." Yoh's voice quavered with emotion, although his convulsing had been reined in after a few deep breaths and a gulp of the water Ren had proffered. "What _don't_ I know about Anna? She's only happy when I'm perfectly miserable. Don't forget _why_ we're engaged in the first place. By every definition, this is a marriage of convenience—hers, mostly."

Ren nodded, pulling his seat nearer to the table. "You are remarkably lucid when you're upset. Perhaps that accounts for your grace under fire."

"No," rebutted Yoh with a smooth shake of his head, "I'm not upset, really. I'm resigned to this. What can I do, really? My grandparents want this to happen. Even Anna does, if for all the wrong reasons."

Ren's mouth unhinged itself in abortive rebuttal. When he remained silent, Yoh spoke again.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you're looking for dating advice, you've come to the wrong place. Sure, I'm still in high school and I'm engaged. But what's more important than a ring on a finger? Or saying 'I do' in front of an old guy wearing robes and a couple hundred distant relatives?"

Ren took in Yoh's every word yet did not acknowledge his query. Yoh sipped his water and continued. "I'll tell you. It's something that can't be summed up with jewelry or vows. Something that is at once free, and yet is the most valuable thing you'll ever own. Something which a fortunate few discover on their first try, many spend years searching for, and an unlucky handful never quite obtain. And it's something that can't be described with mere words, even though I just tried to explain it."

Never known for his patience, Ren appeared antsy after just a few seconds' pause. Not long after he burst out, "Well? What is it?"

"What _is_ it?" asked Yoh, who tried to looked exasperated but instead just looked rather cutely flustered. "It's love, stupid! And don't ask me how you know when you've found it," he hastened to add, seeing that very question playing upon Ren's lips. "You don't _need_ anyone to tell you, anyway. When it happens, you'll know. It'll just hit you, when you're on the beach watching the sun set beneath the pristine waves with her head in your lap. Or maybe during a picnic at the park, when you fight over the last _sushi _and end up tumbling together in the grass. Maybe at the movies, there'll be one magical line that just strikes a chord with both of you, and you look over at each other at the same time, your eyes meet and"—Yoh snapped his fingers—"nothing more needs to be said. That's love."

Yoh carefully studied the woodgrain of the kitchen floor for several moments; he was suddenly conscious of how embarrassingly candid he had just been.

"You are a hopeless romantic, Yoh."

He grinned his usual sheepish grin. "So I've been told—"

The smile was immediately replaced by a shocked expression entirely devoid of color. A lump coalesced in his throat; he realized that Ren hadn't made that observation.

"An—Anna?!"

"The one and only. Dinner smells better than usual this evening, Yoh. Maybe Ren could teach you a thing or two—although from the sound of it, you are the one who's been doing all the teaching today."

It seemed to Ren that Anna's voice could draw tension out of any situation so thickly that it could be cut by Harusame. He stood up shakily and said, "I thank you for your hospitality, Anna, but I really must be going—"

"Bye," Anna cut in with vicious haste. Ren gave Yoh a meaningful look; were he not so overcome with unease, he might have seen, along with a faint milk moustache, him mouthing the word "Thanks" just before he hastily headed to the door.

But his attention was now focused entirely on the black-clad young woman who stood, slender yet deadly arms akimbo, propping a shoulder against the kitchen threshold. Her face was impassive, but as he had told Ren a few minutes ago, he knew Anna very well indeed—and this seemingly neutral stance usually boded ill for him.

"I, well, um," he stammered into Anna's unmoving expression. "How long were you there, incidentally?"

"Just a minute or so before you saw me," she answered, her face still betraying no emotion. It was a distinct contrast from Yoh's, which brightened noticeably when he realized this meant he might just be off the hook. Had Anna only heard his waxing romantic, and not his complaint session before that?

"I didn't need to be standing right in the doorway," she pressed on, "to hear your entire tirade, however." She, contrary to his expectations, ignored his crestfallen expression. "I'm surprised you never expressed your unhappiness earlier. But then again, as you told Ren, communication between the two of us has never been great."

Yoh shook his head, but not as agreement to Anna; rather, he simply could not believe that the usual quarrel was not to come.

"You're always surprising me, Yoh. You described love in such…well, it was so perfect, the way you put it for Ren. I'd say you have a pretty good idea of what love is." Yoh was mystified as to why Anna looked so pensive, even sad, as she pointed this out.

"So I have to know, then. As far as I recall," she began slowly, removing her hands from her hips and meandering towards Yoh in short steps, "we've never watched a sunset at the beach together. Neither have we fought over sushi in the park, or looked into each other's eyes at the movie theater." Anna's hands reached out for Yoh's, and upon feeling her palms upon his, he recoiled reflexively before he reassured himself it was alright this time, the tenderness of her palms would not strike him on the cheek for once…

"All that said, then," she said, and her smooth palms felt clammy to Yoh now, "what is it that we have?"

Yoh was mesmerized by Anna's bright eyes, but they began to cloud at the edges just as his mind started to clear and an answer formulated itself upon his lips. "Anna, I'm not going to lie," he spoke, softly, timidly, yet earnestly, "I'd love for us to have some nice, peaceful, happy memories. But I think I'm expecting too much from us. There aren't a lot of opportunities to sunbathe or go picnicking along the way to becoming Shaman King, and I think…well," he said, faltering, and sensing his palms beginning to twitch in Anna's tender grasp, "I think it's good we're getting all the unpleasant stuff out of the way now. There will be plenty of time for the beach later. And the fact that you're willing to invest so much in someone who's such a screwup, and could very well end up gone tomorrow, says a lot about 'what we have.'"

Her eyes were clear once again, and his next words were equally unambiguous. "It's love, Anna."

He thought he saw a glint of incredulousness flash behind her pupils, so he added, "This…is one of those moments. The first of many, I hope."

Anna looked up at Yoh's vacant, blissful smile and released his palms; her hands joined behind his back, and his slightly shaking torso warmed her. "But not the last."

The convergence of their lips took them both by surprise, although both of them had leaned into each other, and their eyes opened wide briefly before shutting with passion once more. An observer would not be able to discern that Anna was no longer in fear of losing Yoh from how tightly she embraced him. Yoh, for his part, was too busy suckling her supple lips with his own to notice her surprising strength. They didn't need the sunset upon the beach or the picnic basket at the park, they realized; all they needed was each other, and their lips were signing a covenant of unconditional love.

Their lips parted, but they still held one another. "You definitely know what you're talking about," Anna said into Yoh's ear. "Ren's lucky to have your advice."

"Not as lucky as I am to have you."

"You are _such_," she whispered, nuzzling his cheek with her nose for emphasis, "a hopeless romantic!"

"Nothing's hopeless as long as I've got you."

"Oh, geez, enough already…"

"But I can't get enough…of your love!"

"Okay, really, you can stop."

But there was no stopping their love, she knew, and she was happy for it. Their embrace, that ephemeral moment where only two people in the entire world matter, needed to end, but she knew there would be many more to come…

* * *

_You may have noticed the extremely long delay between this story and the last. Well, I've started school again (a bunch of upper-division English courses; lots of reading, writing, caffeine overdoses and contemplating suicide) and that accounts for some of the delay. But to be honest, once I got the idea for this story, it only took three nights to write. Well OK, the last night stretched on till 4 am, but you know what I mean._

_What I'm trying to say is, it's not the stories that take forever to write, it's brainstorming for plots that's time-consuming. Therefore, if you have any ideas whatsoever for stories you'd like to see in "A Shower of Kisses," then please, don't hold out on me. Let me know and I'll get cracking! Thanks._

_-Kefra_


	24. Valentine's Day Massacre

Summary: Anna's acting very un-Valentine's Day-like, and clueless Yoh is…clueless as usual. That is, until…a _typewriter_ comes along? What the hell kind of Valentine's Day story _is_ this, anyway? Read on to find out.

Written: In around a week; finished 1/30/08.

Rating: **M** for **strong suggestive themes** and **coarse language**. (Yeah, I know it should be a T story, but come on, it's Valentine's Day. Let your hair down!)

Notes: So this is my Valentine's Day present to my readers. I ask you now: Will _you_ be my valentine? ;) Enjoy, and Happy Valentine's Day to you all.

Valentine's Day Massacre

_Kiss #23_

Although the skies were clear as the light breeze that descended from them, there was something almost palpable in the air that fine February morning. Yoh certainly felt an indescribable _something_ as he drained a glass of orange juice, and stared out the kitchen window to the fragment of pure sky he could view. It was almost as though the air, laced with some effervescent drug, had leached into his bloodstream, energizing him, and making him almost intangibly more…passionate…

Almost instantly, before Yoh's newly passionate mind could imagine anything too risqué, the rude clatter of porcelain onto countertop assaulted his ears. Out of the corner of his eye he glimpsed a bright yellow meteor streak past him.

"Pfeh! Yoh, by any chance, do you _like_ the texture of eggshells? Maybe you think they're nutritious? Or that leaving them _out_ of my scrambled eggs would be a terrible waste?"

If there was indeed something in the morning air that day, Anna would have been well advised to take several deep breaths of it—although, considering how upset she appeared now, she could've stood to take several deep breaths regardless. With a colossal flick of her wrist, she shoved the plate of eggs towards Yoh, nearly overturning it in the process. "If so, put them in yours if you like. But keep them the hell out of mine!"

He swallowed reflexively, noting that the tartness of the orange juice was nothing compared to Anna's mood. "Yes, of course, sorry…"

"Ugh. As if that's not bad enough, now I've got to write that paper on an empty stomach. Damn teachers…"

Yoh had hesitated at hearing these words, but realized he had appeared a little too stunned for his own good.

"What're _you _looking at?!" she demanded. "Yeah, I don't like school either, but at least I do the damn work before I'm in danger of failing. Which is more than I can say for you."

Yoh sighed inwardly. Usually Anna waited at least till the afternoon before she began her character assassinations, but perhaps she had merely woken up on the wrong side of the bed today. Rising from his stool to clear the table, he said, "Guess I'm off to the gym again today. Good luck with the paper, Anna."

"Yeah," she grunted, slamming an empty glass onto the table for emphasis. "Good luck with suddenly not becoming an idiot."

"Anna," Yoh replied, noticing that he was biting his tongue rather forcefully. "You're not your usual…kind self today. What's wrong?"

"What? Are you mocking me?" She looked positively scandalized, drawing her head back in a cascade of blonde, her bright eyes narrowed and gleaming. "No, I'm fine. I'm used to dealing with imbeciles, thank you very much." She turned her back on him roughly; Yoh watched as the hem of her black skirt sashayed in rhythm with her tense steps. In the parlor she rummaged around in a closet before emerging with a dusty object covered by a threadbare shroud. She placed it on the table in front of the TV and fed a sheet of paper through it. Soon the clacks of a poorly maintained typewriter intermingled with the buzz of the television, and Yoh, who was still mystified by Anna's uncharacteristically hostile mood, was watching her form as she depressed the ancient keys with her slender fingers…

"Oh, this piece of shit!" she screamed in cadence with the typewriter's ding. Her fingers clenched into a dainty fist now, and she pounded upon the keys like a drunken pianist.

"Hang on, the linotype is probably jammed, you just have to—" Yoh scuttled forth from the doorway and bent over the key assembly of the typewriter, but recoiled in a flash from the sudden force imparted on his cheek. _Smack!_

"When I want something broken by your incompetence," she hissed, her left hand still hovering before her, "I'll be sure to let you know."

With that, Yoh headed for the door, rubbing his cheek.

●●●

There was no denying that Anna could deliver a mean slap, but a different sting flooded his entire body once he shoved himself off the bench press. Every muscle in his sweaty body throbbed with the intensity of a salted wound, and he bristled from the stiffness of his exerted tendons. He staggered once he regained his footing, feeling his knees buckling beneath him, and supported himself clumsily with arms that were scarcely sound enough to keep him upright. He swooned to the door, barely managing to nod a goodbye to the front desk, and ended up holding it open for himself with just his body weight.

"Ahhh," he sighed once he had wobbled his way downstairs to the sidewalk. The afternoon air downtown was no less refreshing as it had been at home that morning. But, he suspected as he made his way up the street, perhaps it wasn't just his imagination, or just the crispness of the air. Maybe the day itself really was special. He suspected this more and more as he caught sight of numerous couples, one after another, squeeze their way past him on the sidewalk, holding hands, strolling arm in arm, even occasionally, ah, "too occupied with one another" to avoid colliding with Yoh as he took it all in, bewildered.

Lesser beings, or perhaps simply more embittered ones, might have become overwhelmed with waves of nausea at the sight of so many public displays of affection. Yoh, however, grinned vacantly at the couples as they passed him. Some were carrying heart-shaped boxes of chocolate; others tethered Mylar balloons from their wrists, or had tucked upon their arms stuffed animals and flowery bouquets. They were, however, invariably intimate, and Yoh quite often averted his gaze from one kissing couple only to catch sight of another on the way. It was, quite frankly, a sight that would've triggered most people's gag reflexes.

Perhaps Yoh was notoriously slow on the uptake, but even he had to realize it eventually. His epiphany arrived as he entered the drugstore, intending to buy a bottle of water, and nearly walked into a display of Valentine's Day paraphernalia. "Doh," he said, bonking himself on the noggin. "That would explain all the kissing and stuff, if it's Valentine's Day. How could I forget? Oh well, it might be a good idea to get something for Anna…I'm pretty thirsty, but that's alright…

As he wandered the crowded aisles, Yoh noted the diversity of the romantic gewgaws for sale. Heart-shaped boxes filled with chocolates. Candy hearts that looked as though they were made of chalk, and had a flavor to match. Teddy bears with snow-white pelts, pink pelts, deep crimson pelts, and every shade in between. An entire shelf of greeting cards. Yoh picked up one of these, too bedazzled from the sheer variety to know where to begin, and read it to himself. "…Heh. I guess that's not bad, it's pretty corny, though." After opening several more cards, though, his relatively optimistic outlook darkened. "Sheesh, these are so…cliché. Isn't there anything heartfelt I can give for this special occasion?"

Yoh meandered past another aisle or two of Valentine's Day accoutrements before an idea formulated itself in his mind. "That's…perfect!" The items Yoh purchased were from opposite corners of the drugstore, but he would find a way to make them work.

In front of him in line was a couple, arms encircled around waists, and Yoh blushed visibly when he saw them place their sole purchase upon the conveyor belt. He stared at the box of condoms with a kind of embarrassed intensity until the cashier plucked it up and scanned it. Yoh cleared his throat and pretended to be very interested in the newsstand. The clerk gave Yoh a curious look as she scanned his purchases; he merely shrugged and paid for the items, wondering whether or not Anna had cooled down any since he last saw her.

Once he left behind the outskirts of downtown, he saw fewer and fewer couples dotting the sidewalk. Yoh watched his shadow lengthen and blend in with the intensifying darkness around him, until he reached the gates of his home.

It was just as dark and quiet inside as it had been on the street, and Yoh felt for a second uneasy. "I'm home," he called out hesitantly, not really expecting and answer. No response came, and Yoh began sifting through the assortment of junk under the kitchen sink until he found the toolbox. He set it upon the kitchen table, turned on the light, and made his way into the parlor.

"Anna?" Although he now saw his fiancée before him, he once again did not expect a reply, for she was sound asleep. The typewriter before her, Yoh could see, was even more out of sorts than it had been that morning. He knelt down to hoist the typewriter, and caught a glimpse of Anna as he did so. He froze with his arms halfway to it, momentarily transfixed by the sight of her…

"What a rough Valentine's Day you've had, Anna," he whispered, as though she could hear him through her gentle snores. For Yoh now noticed all of the crumpled and torn sheets of paper upon the floor, some smeared with ink, others tattered from various typewriter malfunctions, and still others written upon in an aggravated hand. There were smears of ink, also, upon her fingertips that, even in the release of sleep, were tensely clenched into her white palms. Her eyes, too, were shut tightly and a gentle furrow bisected them from her brow. Even in the clutches of sleep Yoh could sense in her the tension.

"Try to relax, Anna. The stress can't be good for you."

Were she awake, Yoh would never have dared what he did next; but her taut eyelids emboldened him. He cupped his hands around his mouth and breathed hotly into them, coating his fingertips with condensation. Then he extended his index finger and began to rub at an ink spot on one of Anna's otherwise flawless cheeks, until her face was spotless once more, if still stressed.

"Out, damned spot," Yoh chuckled to himself. "Oh, Anna, if only you could've heard that joke, I think you'd be proud of me." (1)

With one last fond glance at her sleeping figure, Yoh turned around and picked up the typewriter. For something that looked so dilapidated, it certainly was heavy. Yoh's fatigued muscles threatened to give halfway to the kitchen table, but with a final grunt, he deposited the apparatus upon the tabletop.

"Let's see here," he said to himself, lifting the dust cover and revealing the typewriter's innards. "Geez, what a mess!" Yoh may never have been paying attention in shop class, but as he polished, oiled, and dusted the various widgets and gizmos of the typewriter's machinery, he was filled with a sense of resourcefulness. He mumbled to himself every now and then, sometimes with a towel or cotton swab or flashlight pressed between his lips, "Ah! So this connects to this," or "I don't know what this does, but it looks like it could use a little lube," or, perhaps all too often, "Oops."

Yoh began to realize how Anna's fingertips had become so stained as he discovered ink smears in places one would never expect to find them. There were crusted deposits of ink on the undersides of the keys, upon the sides and bottom of the typewriter chassis, even upon the places where a sheet of paper would ordinarily prevent it from going. In fact, Yoh noted with an ironic laugh, the only thing _not_ endowed with a surplus of ink was the ink ribbon itself. "Fortunately, I'm prepared for that." Yoh pulled out a slender box from his drugstore shopping bag, smearing both with ink in the process, and began threading the new ribbon upon the spool assembly. With a few tightened screws and more than a few curse words, Yoh reassembled the typewriter and slid a sheet of paper into it.

"Let's see," he muttered, plunking out individual letters and watching with excitement as they materialized, smoothly and clearly, onto the sheet. "I did it!"

Yoh was too ecstatic at his success to notice that the message he was typing was about to exceed the typewriter's margins. As he neared the end of his message, he typed one letter too many, and the typewriter responded with a clarion "Ding!"

"Eep!" The bell resounded through the kitchen; Yoh could only imagine how loud it must have sounded to Anna. He snatched his bag from the countertop and bolted upstairs.

His hands rummaged through the bag's contents and emerged clutching a book of matches and a pair of tapered red candles. He roughly struck one of the matches, coming close to singeing his fingertips, and a small orange globe of light danced to life atop the candles. He thought he heard motion coming from downstairs as he stopped the bathtub drain and cranked the hot water tap.

There was now no denying the motion Yoh thought he had heard earlier. A rhythmic creaking of the staircase just outside told him Anna had been awakened by Yoh's indiscriminate typing a few minutes earlier. He swallowed hard, emptying his mouth just as the bathtub began to fill. A wispy, insubstantial steam billowed out of the spigot, warming the chilly air before Yoh's face…

"Yoh?"

He involuntarily redirected his attention from the filling bathtub to the doorway. Anna leaned against it drowsily, her hair shaggy, her eyes squinting from the sudden onslaught of light. She looked as though she was about to try to rub them, but saw the grunginess of her fingertips and reconsidered. Her hands briefly returned to the pleats of her rather rumpled black skirt, before they crossed tightly before her chest. Under one of her arms, he noticed, was tucked a sheet of paper.

"Did you just get home?" she asked slowly, and no trace of her rage of that morning remained, although Yoh perceived, from the way her arms resolutely refused to loosen, a certain lingering tension about her. "I…The dream I was having felt so real. You came home and found me sleeping, and you whispered to me, and rubbed a spot off my cheek…Ah well," she continued, taking no notice of Yoh's wide-eyed reaction, "I…I got your message, Yoh."

The sheet of paper drifted towards the floor. In letters that were now slightly smudged, Yoh saw what he had typed just a few minutes ago:

"Happy Valentine's Day, Anna.

"I fixed the typewriter for you.

"When you wake up, there is a surprise waiting for you upstairs. I think you'll enjoy it."

Yoh shifted his weight uneasily from one foot to the other. The tub was more than half full now, and the steam grew thicker.

"Well, I woke up, and I'm here," she said, interrupting the sound of cascading water. "What's the surprise?"

Yoh's nerves nearly got the better of him, but he took a deep breath and spoke. "Anna, I was at the store earlier, and there were all kinds of things I could have gotten for you for Valentine's Day. But I thought, what's the point of all the candy, all the cards, all the teddy bears? I could give you one of those things and tell you 'Happy Valentine's Day,' or…"

He broke off for a second, daunted by Anna's unwavering, unflinching stare. He felt as though he may as well be explaining himself to a wall, but there was no stopping until he had finished. "Or, I could get you something that won't collect dust on a shelf somewhere, something that I thought…you could really use, given how tense you seemed to be earlier today."

Then Anna's arms uncrossed, and the beginnings of a smile played upon her thin lips. "Good call." When Yoh did not cut in, she continued, "I don't care much for Valentine's Day, really. It's so commercialized. It's uncomfortably close to putting a price on kisses and hugs, and on love itself. Plus, I don't really look forward to seeing all the people making out in public. It makes me tense."

Yoh smirked. "That would explain it."

Anna nodded in acknowledgment. "I was so afraid you were going to give me one of those damn heart-shaped boxes of chocolate or something…well, I'm glad you fixed the typewriter instead. You…you did good, Yoh. Happy Valentine's Day."

"Hang on a second," he said, leaning over to shut off the faucet. "There's still one more thing in my bag of tricks. Like I said, you seemed really stressed out this morning, so I thought I should get you something to mellow out a little." Yoh emptied the remaining contents of his bag into the palm of his hand. He began to sprinkle a handful of crystal granules into the bathwater, wafting the warm water in between his fingertips, and soon several exotic scents caroused with one another in the temperate air.

"Hope you like it, Anna….Anna?"

He looked up from the bathtub and saw Anna, eyes closed once more, but the tense furrow between her eyes was gone. Instead she seemed to be inhaling the fragrant air deeply. She let out a sigh and opened her eyes. "Ahh…oh, that's nice, Yoh. I'd take eggshells for breakfast every morning if it meant I could bathe in this."

Yoh felt color rising to his cheeks, making them even warmer than the thick ambient air. "Well…take your time in the bath tonight, Anna. I'm probably not going to make such a mess of breakfast tomorrow morning." With that, he ambled towards the door, flicking off the lights as he did so. He was about to shut the door behind him when Anna stopped him.

"Hold on, Yoh," she said. "First of all, I didn't get to thank you. Secondly," she continued, placing a gentle hand upon his shoulder, and he noticed with some irony that it was he who now felt remarkably tense, "I didn't get you anything for Valentine's Day."

"Oh, it's okay, Anna," he dismissed her with a casual shrug. "To be honest, I didn't remember either until this afternoon—"

"Why don't we share what you got for me?"

"Huh?" Yoh looked bewildered. "Oh. Sure, I guess I can use some of the bath salts too, if you don't mind. Kind of a girly thing for me to do, though, don't you think?"

"No, I mean," Anna replied, and Yoh was in no position to point out that Anna never really did complete that sentence. She did, however, pull Yoh back into the bathroom. In the absence of the light, only a pair of flickering candles illuminated them. Yoh could see Anna only in profile, but her face was positively enraptured, but above all stunningly beautiful. The sparse light cast her features in sharp relief, framed by only a few distinct blonde strands of hair; her eyes locked onto Yoh's face now, and with a little gasp he realized her hands were at his collar, manipulating his buttons…

"Anna," he rebutted softly, but any further resistance died in his throat as she unfastened his last button. Blood suddenly rushed to his head and he felt as though the room was pirouetting around him. Panicking, he swooned dangerously, and Anna supported him in a firm embrace that steadied him momentarily. Yoh felt relieved for a second before he realized, from the sheer warmth and silkiness of her embrace, that no garments were interposed between his skin and hers…

The apprehension, however, was temporary, and Yoh's arms loosened slightly around Anna's midsection, though it certainly felt no less passionate to her. Gently, he lowered her into the warmth of the tub. A kind of sensual tickling brushed upon Yoh's skin as they sat down facing one another.

Yoh swallowed hard. "Well," he gasped, "I guess you could say this turned out to be a better present for me than it was for you."

"Speak for yourself," Anna smirked, pulling Yoh closer. "I should get moody with you every morning, maybe."

"What—you don't already?" The flickering candle flame reflected in his pupils belied his lightheartedness.

"Oh, you," Anna chided teasingly. "Happy Valentine's Day, Yoh."

"Happy—" But Yoh never got to return Anna's sentiments. It was difficult enough for him to speak at all, considering how short of breath the sight of Anna in the nude left him, and even more so with another pair of lips threatening to suck the remainder of his air out of him. But it was a pleasurable kind of asphyxiation, a preternaturally intense kiss that left him feeling as though drowning in a sea of passion, although the water in the bathtub barely reached his chest. The water lapped at his back, shoulders and chest heatedly—or perhaps it was Anna caressing him; his eyes were closed and his nerve endings so sensitive, he could not discern the difference—their lips undulated, smacking and puckering. At long last, the water grew cold and the candles smothered themselves in pools of hard wax, but even in the cold darkness Anna and Yoh were warm as one, and neither wanted to leave for the warmth and light of the parlor so long as they could be in the cold darkness together…

----------

(1) From Shakespeare's _Hamlet _(Act 5, scene 1): "A little water will clear us of this deed (...) Out, out damned spot! Out I say!..."


	25. Midway Mayhem

Summary: At the generous behest of Ryu, Yoh and Anna pay a visit to the carnival. There are games galore, but will Yoh get the prize he _really_ wants?

Written: Uh, you know, maybe I should quit saying when I wrote these. This one took almost two months. School _really_ sucks. And don't start playing World of Warcraft, or you'll _never_ spend your free time writing. Trust me. (Finished 3/17/08.)

Rating: **T** for **mild language** and (as usual) **romantic themes**.

Notes: I intend for this to be a two-shot (mostly because I have a hard time coming up with new plots, but I also like the carnival setting). Don't expect the second part anytime soon, but I hope you enjoy this story, and feel free to comment, please!

Midway Mayhem

_Kiss #24_

Yoh was accustomed to hearing unsettling sounds while arranging plates upon the dish rack—the high-pitched whine of scraping porcelain, the sudden chip of plaster like a skipped heartbeat, or the jarring shatter of a dish smacking the floor—but this time, he actually avoided major disaster. No, the sound he heard was much softer, almost gentle, but potentially far worse.

Anna had sighed. Yoh knew all too well that any signal of discontentment on her part was uncomfortable, not to mention nearly always his fault somehow. Clearing his throat hesitantly, he turned around, the linen towel in his hands drooping languidly along with his enthusiasm for the afternoon.

"Is something the matter, Anna?" Upon turning to face her, Yoh dropped his towel. The expression on her face was not the disgruntled frown he had expected. Rather, she was leaning forward—slouching, really—with elbows propped upon her lap, terminating in dainty fists that supported her delicate chin. The television was reflected in her listless eyes, until she cocked her head sideways.

"Just a little…bored, that's all."

_Easy for you to say, _Yoh thought bitterly for a second. _If you want something to do so badly, help me wash the dishes._ He shook his head violently at these thoughts, a little disgusted with himself, but Anna misread his gesture.

"Ugh, Yoh, I know what you're thinking."

He gave a startled hop backwards; his foot snagged on the towel he had dropped and he stumbled awkwardly for a second. Trying to look as innocent as possible—a difficult task, given how precariously he was now balanced—he coyly asked, "Y-you do?"

"Of course! How stupid do you think I am?" The idyllic, sedate figure of Anna sprung off the couch and now appeared as martial as ever. Her hands did not unclench, although they migrated from her chin to her hips, and rather than the television, Yoh's startled face shone off of her dangerously narrowed eyes. "Oh," she began, making an almost comical face and lowering her voice in a rough imitation of Yoh's, "since you're so bored, why don't we make out?"

The words came as such a shock to Yoh that he completely missed the fact that she was trying to imitate him, not come on to him. "Huh? Yeah, why don't we?"

Somewhere between then and the sudden stinging sensation he felt on his cheek, he realized the truth of the situation. _Oops._

"There's one part of me that you can kiss," she hissed, gesturing towards her rather shapely rear, "and it's not my lips. Got that?"

Yoh didn't quite know what to say. He thought of explaining what had just happened, but realized even he didn't know for sure. Anyhow, thinking about it made his head hurt, even more than Anna's slap. He could swear that the throbbing was making his pulse pound in his ears, so loudly that it sounded to him like someone was rapping on the front door…

"Yoh! Are you just gonna stand there all day? Someone's at the door. Get it."

Yoh drifted, still somewhat dazed, to the door, and slid it open. He looked up into what can only be described as a wave of hair, permanently suspended mid-crest by a truly heroic mass of hair spray. Yoh would know that coiffure anywhere. "Ryu!"

"Master Yoh, it is certainly a pleasure to see you again. Your training progresses smoothly as usual, I take it?"

"Give or take. How about you? Getting any closer to your Best Place?"

"Ah!" Ryu's bushy eyebrows arched in excitement. "Funny you should mention that. For the time being, I have, in fact, stumbled upon a first-rate candidate for my Best Place."

"Where's that?"

"Why tell you, when I can take you there myself? You, and your esteemed fiancée."

Yoh risked a glance over his shoulder. _Oh, she's steamed, all right._

Anna piped up at that moment, and Yoh cringed anticipatorily. _Geez, did she see me looking over at her? She probably thinks I still want to make out with her…wait, I never did want to…at least not today…okay, at least not at the moment she thought I did…crap, I'm confusing myself again…_ "So what is this 'best place' of yours, Ryu? Spill the beans."

Ryu interpreted her rather ambivalent query as an invitation. Stepping around Yoh to enter the inn, his bell bottoms seemed to swell with excitement along with the rest of his animated figure. "I'm sure you'll love it! Such amusement! Such whimsy! The allure of prizes and the comforts of food and drink! Yes, there's—"

"Stop it! Enough! Damn, you sound like a fan fiction writer. Just tell me what this place is already!"

Ryu looked wounded. His rigid hairdo even seemed to sag slightly. "Why, my dear lady, the carnival is in town this weekend, and I happen to have fistfuls of tickets in my pockets for my most esteemed mentor and his fiancée extraordinaire. But I suppose you tire of such worldly pleasures, your grace, in which case I'll be taking my leave—"

"We're going."

----------------

Yoh didn't know how he had missed the local park's sudden transformation from tranquil nook of nature to bustling carnival ground, but transform it had. And "bustling" was, if anything, an understatement. Yoh found independent movement nearly impossible, and after awhile discovered that by offering no resistance and simply standing still, the masses around him would eventually push him towards the midway.

"Yoh? _Yoh?_"

No reply. Anna felt a bit as though she were trying to catch the attention of the lead singer at a rock concert.

"YOH!"

He cocked an eyebrow at the scream. The background noise was enough to render Anna's normally bloodcurdling yell almost inaudible.

"Where's Ryu?" Or at least that's what he thought she was trying to say; Yoh wasn't much of a lip-reader. He shrugged. Anna looked exasperated. Something warm and silky, yet viselike, seized his hand and tugged, and despite the roughness Yoh gave an impassioned gasp. Scarcely able to believe it, Yoh looked down, then up a little…_Anna's holding my hand!_

Indeed she was, and with her trademark glares she managed to cut a path for the two of them through the crowd. Yoh was perfectly capable of snaking his way through on his own, but he feigned helplessness so that Anna would need to hold his hand longer. Soon they found themselves on a somewhat less crowded path lined on both sides with stock carnival games. The air was still thick with the sounds of pellet guns, clattering milk bottles, popping balloons and ringing bells, but at least Yoh could hear himself think here. They strolled past the striped tents and the hopeful contestants. Every so often Anna would stop before a tent, surveying the players' acumen, and Yoh would look too, except his eyes would wander to Anna's face. Somehow the flashing, multitudinous carnival lights produced an effect not unlike sunlight upon her flawless complexion, and Yoh's imagination carried his mind off to distant realms…

"Heh, what a cute monkey," Anna muttered to herself.

Yoh's presence of mind wobbled precariously for a second. "H-huh?"

"Oh, never mind," Anna shrugged, blushing so slightly that Yoh didn't notice even under the carnival lights, but her eyes swooped over the display of stuffed animal monkeys at one of the game booths. Yoh was not quite so out of it as to miss the implication. Fishing a strip of tickets out of his pocket, Yoh approached the tent.

"Step right up! Your tickets buy one dart. Pop a balloon and you walk home with a plush monkey. Cute as the dickens. Simple as that. Step right up!"

Yoh did as he was suggested. "Best of luck, kiddo."

Standing before the row of balloons mounted onto the back of the tent, it almost seemed as though an otherworldly presence were gracing Yoh as he dexterously twiddled and spun the dart in his fingertips. Then, in a flurry of motion so quick it almost looked like a before-and-after slideshow, Yoh delivered a mighty throw, upon which the dart found itself lodged into a strand of rubber. The balloon's pop punctuated the scene, and as the air left the balloon, so too did the mysterious presence vacate Yoh, who grinned childishly at his success.

"F-for you, Anna," Yoh stuttered, his hand quivering, extending to offer the stuffed animal to Anna.

"But you cheated!" Anna scolded, and Yoh could not tell whether or not her effrontery was genuine or in jest. He was about to rebut her accusation, but a different voice spoke at that moment—the unmistakable lofty tones of Yoh's samurai companion.

"Lady Anna, I have reason to believe my ears have deceived me! Certainly you are not accusing Yoh-dono of integrating with me to exploit my _shuriken_ training? **(1)** Let me assure you, such chicanery is beneath such honorable personages as Yoh-dono and myself—"

"Yes," Anna cut in, her voice flat and mirthless, "I'm sure the integration was an accident, huh?"

For a second or two the background noise filtered back into their hearing range. Amidamaru said at last, "Yoh-dono, I apologize for my indiscretion. Lady Anna is most astute."

"Oh, don't worry about it. You're always cutting in whenever you think I need help, even when my life isn't in mortal danger. Force of habit, and a good one at that."

Anna sighed. "How heartwarming. You still cheated, Yoh."

"Yeah," Yoh said, his eyes now fixed upon the muddy, sodden ground beneath Anna's feet. "I guess I did. Sorry, Anna." He placed the scorned stuffed animal on the countertop of the game tent.

Anna looked contrite for just an instant, but by the time Yoh's eyes returned to meet her gaze a second later, her expression was as steely as ever. "Well, why don't you stand in line for one of the rides? I'll be back in a minute. I, uh, I'm off to the little girls' room…"

"Sure, Anna."

She waited until Yoh was around fifty paces away, standing at the rear of a long, winding string of carnival goers. Then, even though she knew he had to still be standing off in the distance, she gave a furtive glance behind her, snatched up the abandoned monkey from the countertop, and crammed it into her purse. Then, taking a deep breath, she sauntered over to Yoh's side in line.

-----------------

"Whee!" exclaimed Yoh as he staggered out of the dome-shaped gondola of the Tilt-A-Whirl. **(2)** The centrifugal forces of the ride had spun his sense of balance upon its head, but his flushed, exhilarated expression plainly stated he didn't care. Anna, on the other hand, looked quite a bit worse for wear.

"Ugh," she deadpanned, pirouetting at Yoh's side. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of her graceful yet perilous spin—but she wasn't done yet. She swooned laterally this time, bending backwards violently, then overcompensating, pitching forward on a collision course with the muddy grass before her.

"Whoa," Yoh muttered, hopping forward to intercept Anna's fall. Wrapping both his arms around her torso from behind, he dug in his heels in an attempt to gain some traction on the slick ground. Still he felt the soles of his shoes gliding in the mud, and he knew their forward motion wouldn't stop from anything other than friction or the ground, and the latter seemed most likely. Sure enough, Yoh felt the unfurling tumble play out in slow motion. His feet kicked up ever so slightly, and, in an attempt to break the fall he realized was coming, his arms' grip relented, sending Anna spinning in the air. With a muffled yell of alarm, Yoh once again encircled his arms around Anna, but it was too late, and besides they had both pitched sideways from the momentum of the tumble.

On his side and mired in the gooey mud, Yoh was dimly aware of the ignominy of his position for a moment, but the shame was shoved out of his mind when he became cognizant of who else was in the mud with him…and just how near she was. Still in his arms, in fact. As Yoh watched slack-jawed with shock and a measure of excitement, Anna's facial expression progressed from disgusted to alarmed, until they were both staring directly into each other's eyes, neither daring to speak, not that any words were necessary. Both were immersed in the moment, much deeper than they were immersed in the filthy mud, and both were oblivious to the many pairs of eyes that had stopped to witness their tumble and were now transfixed upon the backs of Yoh's and Anna's heads.

Finally Anna spoke, tugging Yoh back to his senses. "Yoh…you tried to break my fall, but you fell too." She laughed then, a delicate, softly lilting laugh, gentle yet uproarious, and Yoh didn't see the humor in her declaration, but couldn't help laughing as well.

"If Amidamaru had been behind what you just tried to do…you would've stayed right on your feet."

And Yoh started to see what Anna had seen all along.

"You, and only you, tried to stop me from falling. Thanks for your concern, Yoh. And thanks for not cheating when it really counts."

And then, not caring that Yoh looked genuinely touched, and certainly not caring that at least twenty onlookers were gawking at them, Anna pried one of her arms from the suction of the mud and circled it around Yoh's back. Somewhere in that motion, their lips met, and Yoh's eyes sprung wide open at the contact, but only for an instant; soon his eyes were shut with passion as tightly as Anna's were.

Gingerly, though they were both liberally splattered with mud, they eventually made their way to their feet. The assembled onlookers collectively drew back a step when they arose, but did not disperse—at least, not until Anna adopted her trademark no-nonsense expression and asked, as coldly as only she could, "What are _you_ looking at?"

Yoh could only smile as Anna took a couple of tentative steps down the midway. "Come on, Yoh, there's plenty of carnival left." Nodding, he advanced to join her. Somewhere in the crowd a young man with an outrageous hairdo was looking for a precocious shaman and his fiancée, and he had no idea just how different they now felt, and not just because of the mud that was caking on their skin…

------------------

(1) A _shuriken_ is a Japanese throwing star.

(2) A common carnival ride consisting of a circular platform that spins, on top of which several gondolas are mounted that spin in random directions, resulting in considerable dizziness on the rider's part.


	26. The Wheel Deal

Summary: In this (LONG overdue) conclusion to "Midway Mayhem," Yoh and Anna's visit to the carnival takes a serious "turn" (you'll see the reason for the pun shortly).

Written: In one night on 6/10/2008—my first free night in several months.

Rating: K+ for mild language and romantic themes. (Another K+ chapter? I've really lost my touch, huh?)

Author's Note: Yeah, I started working. Work sucks. It's the reason why this story took the better part of 3 months to finish. And yes, this story isn't so great either, but I wanted to put _something_ new up, seeing as it's anyone's guess when I'll be able to do so again. Hope you enjoy it!

The Wheel Deal

_Kiss #25_

"So what are we waiting in line for this time?" Anna asked, her pinky burrowing into the clefts of her right ear. If she seemed suspicious of, or maybe a little annoyed with, Yoh's taste in carnival rides, it seemed she was well justified, as her finger came out of her ear coated with half-dried mud.

"Nothing as nausea-inducing as the Tilt-A-Whirl. I promise," Yoh solemnly swore, raising his right hand and revealing his own accumulation of caked mud from their earlier tumble. "Just the bumper cars."

"Heh, heh," Anna cackled softly, licking her finger and rubbing at a particularly tenacious spot of dirt on her arm.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh," she sputtered in response, looking guilty for an instant before hardening her face into its usual scoff. "Nothing. I just think it'll be a lot of fun, that's all."

"You bet!" Yoh exclaimed, giving a little leap of excitement. He was quite a sight at that moment, a bouncing brown quasi-humanoid occasionally shedding flecks of mud onto his neighbors in line. "I'm gonna go pedal to the metal and bump you from behind, full force!"

"That's what she said," a kid from the back of the line called out. Anna gave an involuntary laugh. The effect upon Yoh was that of utter confusion. "I don't get it," he muttered, and he wasn't just referring to the joke. Anna, he well knew, was the embodiment of stoicism, but something about the bumper cars was bringing a never-before-seen exuberance out of his fiancée.

As though she were reading his thoughts, however, Anna simply gave a taut smile and nodded at him. "You'll see soon enough." She fished around in her purse for tickets and handed Yoh his share just as the sudden cacophony of footsteps on metal alerted them to the mass departure of carnival goers from the ride ahead.

"Well, looks like this is us," Anna said, and once again Yoh did a double-take at the eagerness so apparent in her voice. He knew better than to verbalize his bewilderment, but couldn't help himself. "Anna, you must really love bumper cars."

"You don't know the half of it," she said over her shoulder as she glided forward in line, handing her tickets to the attendant. Yoh followed suit, and for a moment saw her scrutinizing 

the empty cars, giving steering wheels and accelerator pedals a test nudge, until the onrushing kids behind him blocked her completely from view.

"Looks like I better find a vacant car quick," Yoh muttered as a boy in a yellow jacket hopped behind the wheel of the car nearest him. "Ah well, plenty more where that came from," he grinned, but his optimism quickly faded as several other cars filled. He jogged to the far end of the ride platform, nearly colliding with a man and his daughter on the way, and arrived at an unmanned blue car there. He gave the bumper a little kick before settling in behind the wheel. "Works for me," he said, gripping the wheel tightly and rocking back and forth, waiting for the attendant to turn on the juice…

"Whoa!" When a yellow car careened into his side, he knew the ride had begun. High-pitched laughter twirled around him as his car spun out, and despite his predicament, the ride's aura had pervaded him, and he laughed too. That is, until he realized he had been bounced into a corner.

"Geez, they really need to give these things a reverse gear," Yoh mused as he fidgeted with the wheel and accelerator to no avail. "Ugh, I'm stuck! The only way I can get out, is if someone else hits me…"

"Holy crap, watch out for Blondie," came a voice from directly behind Yoh. He craned his neck around and saw, amidst the careening cars and jocund faces, a bright red car driven by a strikingly attractive, if mud-flecked, blonde who looked all too familiar. She stomped on the accelerator and drove right through two other cars that had just collided, sending them rocketing at right angles. The collision sparked a chain reaction, and soon the entire floor was bumping and skidding like billiard balls on a pool table. But through all the chaos a single red car appeared completely stationary from Yoh's perspective, save for the fact that it kept getting bigger and bigger, at least from where he was sitting, stuck…

"Anna!" Yoh called out, waving his hands above his head. "I'm stuck! I need a bump. Hit me!"

"Be careful," Anna yelled back. "You just might get what you wished for!" And Anna, whose speed had been impressive before, now leaned forward, squashing the accelerator with every pound of her delicate frame. The sinews in her delicate arms tensed as she manipulated the wheel with a white-knuckled grip, on a collision course with the immobile, cornered speck of blue just in front of her.

With a mere instant separating Anna from her collision course, it suddenly dawned on Yoh that her speed, combined with his spot wedged against a corner, would make for a violent jostling indeed. His brain frazzled and panicky, he indiscriminately pleaded with his foot and hands, hoping to cajole some productive movement out of the crippled car.

"You're mine, Yoh!" When he heard Anna speak these words, he closed his eyes and ducked his head beneath his arms. His breath caught itself in his throat and he braced himself for the mother of all bumper car collisions…

He opened his eyes and noticed, first of all, he was no longer staring directly into a corner. Rather, his field of vision focused upon Anna, who was laughing catatonically. "You shoulda seen the look on your face! Oh man, if this kid hadn't come between us at the last second, you woulda landed on the top seat of the roller coaster!"

Yoh smiled weakly; he was relieved, but infinitely more confused. _Wasn't she really upset? Nah, maybe she just really likes the bumper cars. She is human, after all…_



"I'll get you for sure next time, slowpoke," she called over her shoulder with a wink as she sped away from him.

"Ahh…it's good to be able to move again," he sighed, colliding with car after car. Yoh felt as though he were in a pinball machine, but he didn't mind at all. "Gotcha!" he yelled, accelerating gently into the back of a white car.

"There you are!" The familiar voice had spoken from his left, but when he turned his head, he saw nobody there. Then from directly behind him, she spoke. "Run while you still can!"

"Ahhh!" Yoh floored his accelerator, but the distance between the two of them was diminishing rapidly; his car's pickup was sluggish, while Anna was steering the bumper-car equivalent of an F1 racer.

"No escape this time—" Yoh lurched forward, and at first he thought Anna had finally rear-ended him, but then he noticed everything around him had come to a stop.

"Time's up!" bellowed the attendant. "Let the next kids come on, please!"

"Aww, how lame," Anna said, making a face. "I never did get to bump you."

Yoh remembered what the guy behind him in line had said, and even though he didn't get it, decided to try it out anyway. "That's what she said?"

She rolled her eyes and gave Yoh a gentle shove. "How about I bump you on the noggin instead?"

"Much as I'd love to, what say we get on another ride instead? You can beat me up tomorrow. In fact, you probably will…"

Anna laughed at that. "You know, I…I'm actually glad Ryu brought us here. And I'm actually, well, enjoying myself. What a great guy, huh?"

Yoh warded off the momentary shock of Anna's sudden confession. "Uh…come to think of it, where'd he disappear to, anyway?"

"No idea, but I'm sure he'll turn up. C'mon, this is Ryu we're talking about! Great guy, but really…frankly, he's pretty weird."

"Ha, tell me about it." He played with his hair and held it in a rough imitation of Ryu's coiffure, then cleared his throat and said, in the lowest, most exaggeratedly macho voice he could manage, "This carnival is my Best Place!"

Anna gave a shrieking laugh. Doubled over, she gasped, "Stop it! You're killing me!"

"It's payback for the bumper cars!"

"Which was payback for a certain person getting a certain other person covered in mud thanks to an ill-advised ride choice, if you'll recall." Yoh looked as though he was about to rebut her, but she shrugged and continued, "Anyway, speaking of ride choices, what's this line for?"

"Well, I thought it'd be a good idea to finish the night with a ride that won't leave our hearts racing with adrenaline…or nausea. So this is the line for the Ferris wheel."

Anna's reaction made Yoh question whether or not he had indeed spoken the words "Ferris wheel," and not, say, "Flaming Inverted Chaos Pendulum of Burning Death," which might have suited her reaction more amply. She simply stared with an expression of ultimate shock at Yoh for several moments, then spoke, with eyes still bulging, "No. Absolutely not. I can't ride that thing."

"What?" Yoh's expression was the polar opposite of hers. He looked as though trying to suppress a smile and failing miserably, like she was pulling his leg and he knew it, but her reply wiped the trace of a smile off his lips.

"No. Let's ride something else."



"What?" asked Yoh again, less incredulously this time. "Why not?"

"I…well, I just don't feel like it tonight!"

Trying to inject a little levity into the tense situation, Yoh tried once again with the line he didn't get. "That's what she said?"

"Ugh! Yoh…If you must know, well, I'm…"

Yoh realized about then that Anna was about to say something difficult and personal—in other words, something she might otherwise never speak—and turned to face her gravely.

"…I'm afraid of heights, all right? Look, let's just forget it."

"Anna…" No words came to him then; Anna's candid confessions had a way of leaving him speechless, but something within him compelled him to at least try to articulate his jumbled thoughts. "We're all afraid of something, and that's only natural. Sometimes even the bravest of us have the silliest fears. But sooner or later," he said, pausing to collect his thoughts but never shifting his gaze away from Anna's uncertain eyes, "we have to face that which we fear the most. And more often than not we discover there was nothing to fear in the first place. In fact, oftentimes when we conquer our fears, we discover everything we've been missing out on."

Anna looked pensive but skeptical. "Yeah, right. Then tell me, Yoh. What are _you_ afraid of?"

He swallowed hard, and the faintest beginnings of a blush appeared at the peaks of his jaw. "Anna," he said finally, "I'll tell you on the Ferris wheel."

She stared at him with a frown that softened into a deep gaze. At last she gave a stiff nod. "All right."

Yoh seated himself in the Ferris wheel gondola, but stood up again when Anna hesitated to step in after him. "Come on, here, I'll help you in," Yoh offered, extending his arm, but Anna took a deep breath, boldly planted her right foot into the gondola—then scampered to the seat, shutting her eyes tightly and tucking her head within her arms.

"Anna?"

She gave no indication of having heard him.

"Anna, please talk to me."

Silence.

"Anna? Please, open your eyes. Look, we're still on the ground."

"Really?" Anna's arms, tightly crossed before her head, loosened. Her head rose and her eyes opened a crack. "Ahhhh! Y—you damn liar! Yoh! I'll never forgive you!" And with that, Anna turtled herself once more, her eyes shut and her arms locked before her head.

"Anna…look. There's really nothing to be afraid of. Hell, you rode the bumper cars. I'm pretty sure more people have died in the bumper cars than in the Ferris wheel."

"Eep! People die on this thing?!"

_Oh man, nice choice of words there, Yoh._ "No—I mean, look. If you're afraid of heights, that's one thing, and it's perfectly understandable. But you're not rock climbing here, or bungee jumping, or parachuting. You're on a Ferris wheel. The only way you'd ever fall on this thing is if someone picked you up, swung you around and gave you a huge heave. And you don't really think _I'd_ do that, do you?"

Yoh sighed at the prolonged silence that answered him. He was about to begin persuading her again, but she finally responded. "I…I guess you're right."

"Yeah! I mean, the first Ferris wheel was invented over a hundred years ago! By now they've got these things down to a science. Nothing could go wrong—"



Yoh felt the air around him suddenly grow colder, and it wasn't just his imagination. At the apex of his gondola's path, all the lights around him suddenly snuffed out. As if to confirm his suspicions, he peeked down onto the fairgrounds—they were pitch black.

_A power outage?! You've gotta be shitting me…Anna's going to kill me…probably by picking me up, swinging me around and giving me a huge heave…_

"W—what's going on, Yoh?" Anna asked from behind her arms. "Why'd you stop talking all of a sudden?"

"Uh…" Yoh racked his brain for some plausible excuse as to why the Ferris wheel had stopped moving and all the lights for miles had suddenly shut off. "Well, you see, it looks like there was a bit of a…power outage…"

"You mean to tell me that I'm stuck up here, in total darkness, at the top of a Ferris wheel?!"

"Well…not _total_ darkness—"

"AHHHH!"

Yoh massaged his throbbing temples in the darkness. "Anna…I know this hasn't turned out quite the way either of us wanted it to. But couldn't you at least open your eyes? Just look up, if nothing else. Without all these lights in the way, the night sky's just unbelievable."

"No!" Anna yelled, and even without seeing her face he knew she was furious. "How can I even trust you? You haven't even told me what you're afraid of, like you promised!"

"You're right," he replied. "A promise is a promise."

"Well?"

"Okay. I first encountered my fear years ago. Apparently, my parents thought it'd be a good idea for me to get acquainted with it, since someday it'd make me stronger. Well, they could force me to spend time around it, but they certainly couldn't force me to like it. And I could never escape it. I literally had to live with it—I still do, in fact. And let me tell you, I had every right to be afraid of it. If you come across it at the wrong time, it'll make you feel cold, helpless, depressed, angry—you name it."

Anna didn't have anything to say to this, so Yoh continued, "But in time I came to realize, sometimes we're just afraid of what we don't understand. That same coldness, the depression, the helplessness—it _can_ make you stronger. It _can _ make you happy. You just need to understand it, and try to work _with _it rather than against it, and you'll see there's nothing to be afraid of."

"Yoh, you could be a politician. You still haven't said exactly what you're afraid of!"

"Isn't it obvious? Something that makes me feel cold and helpless sometimes, and yet fills me with such warmth and hope that I'm not afraid of anything anymore?"

"Sounds like some kind of magic potion."

"Close. It is magical, at least. Anna…it's you."

Anna's figure, silhouetted by the gentle moonlight, slowly rose. The moonbeams glinted off of something watery upon her face, and Yoh thought she was looking directly at him, but he slowly realized she was instead staring directly _behind_ him. She joined Yoh on his side of the gondola and peered out over the edge. Bereft of the gaudy midway lights, the landscape looked tranquil, enshrouded in rolling wisps of mist, and Anna said, "You're right, Yoh."

"About the view? Yeah, it's great—"

"No. Yoh, there really is nothing to be afraid of. Not for me, and certainly not for you."



His eyes had adjusted to the gray moonlight, but Anna's face was anything but dull, especially at such close proximity. Her arms, which moments ago had been clasped about her head, were now just as tightly embracing Yoh's torso, and it was his turn now to shut his eyes passionately as their lips grazed, then locked. Certainly neither of them was afraid at that moment, even though the gondola was rocking quite strongly from the vigor of their kiss. It wasn't fear that made Yoh's heart race at that instant. It wasn't fear that made Anna's delicate arms bristle with goosebumps at that moment. No, it was passion. It was surprise. It was love. And although the power was eventually restored and the Ferris wheel gondola returned to the ground, the lingering memory of their airborne kiss was enough for Yoh's hope to take flight once again…


	27. Lights Out

Summary: Cooking has never been Yoh's strong suit, but this time he outdoes even himself. Anna, as you might've guessed, isn't exactly happy with what he causes, either. So what'll happen now?

Written: In about 5 hours into the early morning of 6/18/2008.

Rating: **T** for innuendo, romantic themes, and coarse language.

Notes: Can't really say anything else about this story. It was surprisingly fun to write and, I think, one of the better things I've written lately. I hope you like it too, but even if you don't, **please **review!

Lights Out

_Kiss #26_

"_Moonlight would provide the spark, and then I would stumble across your key, or break down the door to your heart…"_

_-Mayday Parade, _Three Cheers for Five Years

There were easily enough groceries upon the kitchen countertop to stock a walk-in freezer and several pantries, and Yoh's arms still tingled from the exertion of trucking them home himself. The bulk of the groceries, however, were not destined for the refrigerator or the cabinet, but rather into one of the many pots and pans strewn before them, configured like a chromed drum set. Despite this, Yoh grinned carelessly as he rinsed the cookware. It didn't seem odd to him that a shaman of such formidable power should be so thoroughly whipped as to be reduced to a second-rate chef every mealtime; indeed, such rueful thoughts never seemed to enter his carefree mind. Rather, having been imperiled more times than most upper-tier combatants three times his age, Yoh had been ingrained with the philosophy of enjoying the little things in life, and of taking nothing for granted._ Preparing dinner is a drudge, certainly, but it sure beats dying,_ he mused as he brought the stove to a shimmying red roil. With experienced, yet somehow still clumsy, hands, he coated a frying pan with a generous dollop of oil.

As the pan and its contents began to simmer, the cadence of Yoh's carefully orchestrated cooking—the frying pan's spatters, the strangely tranquilizing warble of the boiling pot of water, the occasional violent reports of the ancient rice cooker—intermingled with the television from the other room. His hands rummaged through the grocery bags still on the table and cupped around a variety of boxes and cans, which he began to arrange in the pantry.

"Mm, canned corn," he muttered to no one in particular. He needed no further prompting to pry open the can with a dull opener and tip its contents into a bowl. With a final flick of the wrist, he centered the bowl inside of the microwave. Then he turned his attention back to the stovetop, where he conducted the orchestra with a variety of implements—a spatula, a comically oversized spoon, a single chopstick that had been separated from its identical twin years ago and was probably now residing in the U-bend in the sink's drain. His diligence was soon rewarded; the kitchen now basked in the ineffable scents of a meal nearing completion.



"Ah," Yoh sighed in relief once he detected this medley of aromas. He opened the refrigerator and sorted the contents of the final grocery bag within. A bunch of celery and a head of lettuce disappeared into the salad crisper, but then Yoh paused with his hands grasping a pair of firm oranges.

"I might as well make something for dessert, huh? Why not?" He placed one of the oranges on the counter near the sink, along with a pair of nearly overripe bananas and a handful of strawberries.

"Now, where'd I leave that crappy blender…" Yoh rummaged through the closet beneath the sink, the two above the stove, and the one beside the refrigerator. At last he found, behind a hopelessly tangled whisk and a rusty sieve, the blender. He twiddled the power cord hesitantly, but he was right to be afraid; he was almost certain that it wasn't his imagination, the cord was really held together by a segment of duct tape.

"Oh well," he said in between chews of an orange wedge, "I can't blend these fruits by hand, now, can I?" He closed his eyes and slid the plug into the last free socket, and once he realized nothing bad had happened, noticed he was still holding his breath.

"Heh heh, no problem," Yoh gloated, triumphantly slamming the lid on the blender and pressing the _Puree_ button. The subsequent high-pitched whine told him that despite the duct tape, the blender was still capable of getting the job done. Yoh still thought this as he reached out to shut off the stove, but as he did so a horrible discordant noise, like a chainsaw grating against a concrete wall, cut through the kitchen. He gasped, blinked his eyes, and reopened them to an entirely unfamiliar sight.

Just an instant before, the blender had been drowning out any other sound. Now, the feeble popping and boiling from the stove was the only sound, aside from Yoh's startled breaths. The television had ceased its buzzing. Most significantly, it was now pitch black.

_Oh, crap._

In the darkness Yoh could only rely on his hearing to cue him in to what was going on. He flashed back briefly to the desolation of the training he had undergone about a year ago, to those long days in isolation in the total blackness of the cave, but now, as he heard lumbering footsteps from the living room, he could only wish to be in isolation now…

"What'd you do this time?" Yoh didn't need to be able to see Anna's face to know she was livid.

"Just…cooking dinner as usual," he shakily replied. Somehow, the sense that he was speaking to no one in particular made him feel as though he were speaking to God—although Anna was, in a way, omnipotent to him.

"Just cooking dinner, huh? With what? A machine gun?" At this Yoh shut his eyes tightly and staggered back—not necessarily because Anna's retort was particularly vexing, but rather because at that moment Anna clicked on a flashlight and the beam flooded directly into Yoh's dilated pupils.

"Sorry," Anna said, completely unconvincingly. The blinding beam lingered upon his face for another moment before it darted about the room. "Well, at least you managed to finish the cooking before you did…whatever the hell you did," she observed, shining the light upon the stovetop. "Wait a minute…oh Yoh, you monumental dumbass."

Yoh froze. In the dark corner of the room to which he had slunk, he thought he could sneak a bite of the meal he had prepared. The light flitted to him now, and on his tiptoes with a fork in an extended arm, he looked pretty silly.



"Good lord, Yoh, it was the blender that made that horrific racket, wasn't it?"

"It, uh," he stammered, nervously twirling the fork, "well, it might have been…"

The way she suddenly strode over to the blender made Yoh wonder whether his fiancée had bionic eyes. She shone the flashlight upon the cord, pointed a finger at the segment of duct tape, and hissed, "What'd you think this was for? Decoration?"

"I—I—um," Yoh tried, but it was no use.

"You know what was on TV before you decided to use the blender?" Anna fumed. "An _All My Descendants_ marathon. Which is only my favorite soap opera ever. Now, thanks to your electrical finesse, I'll never know what happens."

Yoh sighed. "I'm sorry, Anna."

"Whatever," she spat. "Well, the evening's ruined, but I'll be damned if you're gonna let me go to bed pissed _and _hungry. Let's eat."

"Hey, you know, it's not a total loss," Yoh said after hesitating. "Nothing's quite so memorable as a candlelit dinner."

Anna's hollow laugh sank Yoh's spirits once more. "Candles? What the hell do you think this is, a five-star Italian restaurant? I don't have any goddamn candles, just this one flashlight. Now serve me the entrée and quit getting all romantic on me. I don't think I need to remind you that you're in no position to get flirty with me tonight anyway, Mr. Duct Tape."

Dejected, Yoh wordlessly scooped food onto Anna's plate and, after making another such plate for himself, sat at the table. She propped the flashlight upright so that it projected a dull circle of light at the ceiling, dimly illuminating the room.

"So," Yoh began, then immediately regretted it as his mouth suddenly felt like it was stuffed with cotton. "Uh, what's that show about? _All My Descendants_?"

As he took a quick gulp of water, he saw Anna's face stop chewing to form a frown. "Since when do _you_ care?"

Yoh was chugging his water like a frat boy might chug beer. "Since the power went out."

"The power didn't just _go_ out," Anna snapped accusatorily.

"Fine. Since I royally messed up and blew out the power. So, getting back to that show of yours…"

Anna started fiddling with her chopsticks. "Typical soap-opera stuff. You know, romance and relationships. Keeping a girl happy, and if you don't, she'll probably cheat on you. In other words, shit you'd never understand."

"Hey, I try to keep you happy, Anna. Maybe I should watch with you next time, then. Pick up a few tricks."

"Yeah, right. Watch an hour of TV and suddenly become a perfect person. Come on, Yoh, not even an infomercial would dare to promise that much. And quite frankly, if you can't figure out what I like and don't like on your own, nothing else can."

Yoh propped his arm upon the table to support his forehead. "Come on, Anna. Just give me a chance. I know you don't think much of me, but I can make you happy, I swear."

Anna's face was completely bereft of any emotion whatsoever, as usual. In fact, her gaze wasn't directed at Yoh, whose heartfelt words would've garnered the attention of any other young woman. Instead, she was impassively glancing downwards at her half-finished dinner. "All right. Yoh, consider this your chance."

Yoh, who had been watching Anna nonchalantly playing with her food, was startled by her sudden offer. "Huh?"



"You heard me. If we get the power back fast enough, I can still catch the tail end of the marathon. If you do that, then I'll have to acknowledge that you really do try to make me happy." She said this as though reading a passage aloud from a rather dull textbook. "The circuit breaker's outside, round back. You probably just blew a fuse, so just swap each one out till the power comes back on. Think you can handle it?"

Even in the grayish aura of the dying flashlight, Yoh's grin shone through. "Anything for you, Anna." And with that, he was out the door. Had he chanced a look at Anna before departing, he might have seen, even in the faint light, the stunned expression she was wearing thanks to his touching words…

Anna finished her dinner unhurriedly, scraping every last grain of rice from the plate before rising to deposit it into the sink. _Quite a meal tonight, even if it was spoiled by the darkness. That fiancé of mine just might be picking up a trick or two in the culinary arts…_

_Is it possible that he's trying harder just for my sake?_ she wondered. _Nah, he's probably just getting better with practice. He can't possibly have any feelings for me, right? I mean, I think it might actually be okay if he was…I have to admit, I feel myself falling for him bit by bit…_

Before she could pursue that thought any further, she gave an exasperated start. _That idiot didn't even take any fuses with him? How's he supposed to fix a blown fuse empty-handed? I mean, the guy's got heart, but that's not going to conduct electricity._ She kneeled down under the sink and cast about for the toolbox. She lugged it out from beneath the sink, and looked up, only to stare the blender square in the face.

_Ah, the root of all of tonight's woe. I hate to admit it, but it's almost my fault. I should've tossed it out when I severed the cord…Duct tape, what was I thinking? The stuff's useful, no doubt, but no miracle worker. I wonder what he used the blender for, anyway? Ah well, Yoh's been out there awhile, I should get these fuses to him before he electrocutes himself or something…_

With the toolbox in one hand and the blender jug in the other, she strode outside. It was quite a bit brighter outside; the night sky was cloudless and dominated by a full moon. She rounded the corner, knowing the circuit breaker was mounted on this back wall, and expected to see Yoh before it, futilely prodding and cajoling its innards to work, but he was nowhere to be found. Anna found, strangely enough, that she wasn't as annoyed as she expected to be by this turn of events. Instead, she meandered through the rock garden and sat down on a smooth boulder.

"Anna."

She gave a muffled shriek and glanced about her frenziedly. Yoh was reclined upon an adjacent rock, his arms folded behind his head. "I'm sorry, Anna, but it's really no use. I mean, honestly, I can barely change the batteries on my Oracle Pager without breaking something. Compared to that, the circuit breaker's on a whole different level."

Anna found no words to this candid admission. Again, the annoyance that normally welled within her at Yoh's incompetence did not manifest itself.

"Anna, if you'll forgive me for saying so, I think it'd be best if we just forgot about the power outage for tonight. Besides," he said, sitting up and pointing at the jug in her hand, "it looks like you found dessert."

"Oh?" For the first time Anna gave the jug's contents a careful look.



"Yeah. I made you a fruit smoothie. I thought you deserved a good dessert, to make up for the crappy dinner."

Anna's face at that moment was disarmingly affected, and her gaze rose from the jug to stare intently at Yoh, but he took no notice and continued, "Anyway, sorry I'm making you miss those soap operas. But take a look at this night sky. What a beautiful sight!"

"It sure is."

But Anna wasn't looking the same place Yoh was, and her voice came from much closer than it had been earlier. The proximity of her voice startled Yoh the same way it had scared her just moments ago, and he recoiled from the boulder and bumped ungracefully into the back wall of the En Inn. Disoriented, he wobbled dangerously for a moment, until two slender yet sturdy arms steadied him.

"I guess you were right about two things tonight, Yoh."

Wrapped tightly in Anna's arms, with the warmth of her body so snugly enveloping his, Yoh found it rather difficult to focus on what she was saying to him, but he took a couple of shaky breaths and tried his best.

"You really do try, Yoh," she said, looking up slightly, directly into his eyes. "And this truly is a beautiful sight."

"Um, er, ah," Yoh stammered, and even under the diffuse moonlight it was obvious he was blushing furiously. "Not as much as you…"

It was her turn to blush. She loosened one of her arms, plucked up a fuse, and slid it into a socket in the circuit breaker. "Yoh, you light up my life," she whispered as the lights within the house flickered on.

"Oh, geez," Yoh laughed nervously, "how corny! And you say _I'm_ the hopeless romantic—"

Honestly, Anna had no rebuttal to Yoh's point; in fact, she had nothing to say at all. But her lips were certainly active enough to speak sentence after sentence. Yoh accepted her wordless argument upon his lips and began to talk back, again without speaking. Yoh's head was in danger of hitting the wall again, but he found Anna's hand there instead. He moaned softly as her other hand caressed his back; he thought Anna might like it too, and his exploratory fondle was acknowledged by a similar moan. The short, quick breaths upon each others' lips filled them with a kind of passionate, intense suffocation, and they wanted more, but their lips inevitably parted.

Yoh rested his chin lightly upon Anna's tender shoulder, still softly embracing her. He was still breathing hard and, nuzzling her perfectly smooth cheek with his nose, asked softly, "So, now that the power's back, do you still want to watch _All My Descendants_?"

Anna squeezed her arms tighter around Yoh. "No. Tonight," she said, "there are more, ahem, _pressing_ matters to attend to, I think."

She looked down suggestively, and Yoh blushed more intensely than ever when he realized exactly how he was "pressing" against her there…


	28. Go Tell It on the Mountain

This story was written for the _Writers Anonymous Random Challenge _proposed by **Rhea Silverkeys** and adjudicated by _Writers Anonymous_ moderators. (The objective was to write a one-shot that incorporates the two words that this website instructs you to type when you log in.)

As per contest rules, this story DOES NOT require any reading of the preceding chapters. It is a standalone one-shot story. (I would've posted it separately to avoid any confusion, but website rules prohibit me from posting this story twice.)

My words were **Lodging** and **Rector**, defined below:

**lodging** (LAWD jing) _n_. 1. Accommodations and housing, especially those for rent. 2. A temporary place to stay; temporary quarters. _v. (used without object) _Fixing, implanting, or catching in a place or position; coming to a rest; sticking. _v.(used with object)_ Bringing or sending into a particular place or position.

**rector **(REK ter) _n._ 1. _Protestantism and Anglicanism._ The clergy member in charge of a parish. 2. _Roman Catholicism._ An ecclesiastic in charge of a congregation or church.

These words are in **boldface** throughout.

Rated **T** for some **coarse language, romance** and **innuendo.**

* * *

Summary: The rare beauty of the sun rising over Mount Fuji inspires the usually stern Anna to "invite" Yoh along for a daylong hike. But what surprises await them on the trail, and will they even make it that far, given his knack of annoying her?

Go Tell It on the Mountain

_Kiss #27_

The faded wooden slats that comprised the En Inn's walls, knurled with deep ridges like fingers and toes after a long bath, looked as though they had seen many mornings just like this one. If someone were to look through one of the windows that dotted the exterior, they would see a kitchen, but it certainly wouldn't be a good idea, for their peeping wouldn't go unnoticed.

On the other side of the window, partially obscured by glare, a boyish figure was hovering, slightly hunched, over the kitchen table, like a lion cub awaiting his first kill. His mane—the rather unkempt hair in halfhearted bangs and spikes that protruded from the sides and back of his head—was certainly leonine enough. Even though it was black, it was lent a modicum of ferocity by the set of fiercely orange headphones half-buried within its points.

The figure, however, failed miserably at pouncing. Or rather, he went for the jugular, but his victim was merely a disc of greasy porcelain, all that remained of that morning's breakfast. Another humanoid, also concealed by blinding glare, came into sight. This one was seated with her back to the window. Its slender hand pushed another plate toward the kitchen's other occupant. It was hard to discern which was more radiant—the sheen of sunlight refracted by the window, or the dazzling cascade of blonde hair that streamed past the chair back and fluttered listlessly in the still air.

The boy, now cradling an unsteady contraption of plates, cups, and saucers, turned to face the window. The wail of scraping porcelain made him cringe, and not just because of the sound itself. He didn't dare turn around. Instead, dabbing at the beads of sweat on his forehead, he opened the window just a crack. Cool air rushed in and heated conversation leaked out.

"…don't have the money to replace those dishes, you klutz!"

"I…my bad, Anna," another voice responded without missing a beat. "Um, so how was breakfast?" His voice was the antithesis of the typical adolescent's brash declarations and overconfident assertions—deferential, even-tempered, and shaky.

The first voice replied unflinchingly. "Changing the subject _and_ fishing for compliments! Nice double play, Yoh." A refreshing breeze was seeping under the window, but it was no competition for the icy comments that preceded Anna's stiletto lips—razor-thin, blood-red, and always needing a fresh coating… "Here's a tip. If you can write on the sidewalk with a strip of bacon, it's _probably_ overcooked. But what do I know? Maybe eating carbon paper for breakfast is an Izumo tradition."

Yoh sighed and swallowed, pursing his lips in the gutsiest show of dissatisfaction he dared express to his fiancée. His defeated eyes roved around the room, determined not to meet Anna's gaze, but once he did he involuntarily flinched.

At first, as he had feared, she appeared to be staring—or, more accurately, _scowling_—directly at him, but when she shaded her eyes with her hand, he saw more clearly her gaze wasn't angry. In fact, it had that vacant, almost mesmerized appearance familiar to anyone who's ever witnessed someone in the midst of a daydream. Intrigued, Yoh followed her fixated gaze and found himself staring directly into the sun. He, too, arched a hand atop his brow to afford himself a better view.

His instinct, ingrained by his two-year cohabitation with Anna, was that there was some imperceptible smudge on the window, or perhaps a mote of dust on the sill, and Anna was irked by his inattention to cleanliness. He picked up a dishrag, gave it a preparatory ruffle, and poised himself in front of the window, ready to dispatch whatever aberration Anna was surely going to point out.

"Care to move?" Anna inquired in a way that made an answer superfluous. She wriggled her fingers above her eyes. "I sure as hell wasn't saluting you, if that's what you were thinking."

Yoh nodded curtly and stepped backwards. He was about to look out the window again, until he caught sight of Anna. Normally, he would never feel courageous enough to stare at her countenance, but now, basked in the invigorating aura that only morning sunlight could provide, he found it difficult—no, impossible—to avert his gaze. He forgot about the window and the dishrag draped over his hand. His eyes were drawn like magnets to a particularly stunning fridge. They glued themselves on her slender legs, taking in every perfect contour and curve, until they melded with a pair of smooth knees that flirted with the hem of her black skirt. His eyes somewhat guiltily wavered over her black-clad torso, taking brief but memorable notice of her waist and hips, and above them, a pair of shapely yet unobtrusive…

Suddenly aware of how inappropriate his glances were, he jerked his head up abruptly and chanced a peek at her face, praying she hadn't noticed his provocative staring. He breathed easier upon noticing that she was still preoccupied with the view from the window—those eyes, sedate, round, even eager, a welcome change of pace from the usual angry slits. The eyebrows above them, for once, weren't contorted downwards in a frown, and the delicate hand that shaded them wasn't clenched; Yoh ran his eyes down each thin finger.

The images of Anna's perfection were **lodging** in Yoh's mind even as he took them in, feature by feature: her unexpectedly weak jaw, which looked more feminine now that it wasn't clenched; her perky nose, unmarred by frown lines.

"Take a good look, Yoh."

He recoiled at Anna's sudden speech, but managed to steady himself with the kitchen table. He prepared a quick alibi—he hadn't been staring, just daydreaming (it was half true, at least). It was unnecessary, though, since her gaze still hadn't deviated from the window. _Oh, she means 'take a good look' out the window, phew…_ He ditched the sorry excuse and moved beside Anna, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the intense sunlight, wanting to see exactly what was seizing Anna's attention.

No landmark is quite as impressive, or symbolic of Japan, as Mount Fuji. Backlit by the picturesque sunrise, Yoh appreciated exactly how Anna could stare at it for so long. No comparison could hope to do it justice, but Yoh thought it looked a bit like a yarmulke of snow knitted upon a pointy brunette head. The feather in this particular cap was an incredibly radiant sphere of light. It certainly lent a degree of credence to their country's appellation "Land of the Rising Sun."

"Say," Anna began, her eyes still squarely on Mount Fuji, "wouldn't you…We should climb it sometime."

"Huh?" Was Anna, maybe, just possibly, planning something that resembled a _date_?

"Uh, that is, you know, for—It would be good exercise," she stuttered. Her eyes finally moved, favoring Yoh with her all too familiar glare. "You're getting a little tubby, Yoh."

"I—I am not!" Yoh objected. "How can I be, with your 'special training menu?'" Determined in the moment to prove his point, he grasped the hem of his T-shirt with both hands and swept it off. He demanded, "Does _this_ look 'a little tubby' to you?!"

Yoh, it must be said, had a good point. The results of Anna's grueling training regimen were plain to see, even now, years from the full flower of adulthood. Faint outlines of sinews and tendons rippled barely beneath the surface of his smooth skin.

Anna had been staring directly into the sun for several minutes earlier, but the blush that now flooded her cheeks certainly wasn't sunburn.

"Good God, Yoh! Put—wear a shirt, for crying out loud, do you think I—why would I want to see you shirtless?!" she screamed, seemingly revolted, but her eyes lingered on his biceps, shoulders and abs…

"Okay, okay," Yoh capitulated, poking his slim, solid arms into his wadded shirt. "But don't be so…angry, Anna, please. You're turning really red, that can't be healthy…"

Her eyes widened at this, and she spun on her heels to stare at the blank kitchen wall. She took a deep breath. "Look. Do you want to head for Mount Fuji, or not?"

Yoh smoothed out his shirt, straightened his headphones, and realigned his necklace. He took another look out the window; the feather in the yarmulke had risen slightly, but the sight was no less fantastic. "Sure, why not?"

* * *

The first plausible reason "why not" was the severely overcrowded electric train. The pusher, a gargantuan man who enjoyed all too much his job of playing Tetris with the passengers, shoved Yoh and Anna into the last remaining space in the car. A cocktail of unappealing scents pervaded the area, and although Yoh was in closer proximity to Anna than ever before, the constant elbowing, and kneeing, and getting coughed on, and not least of all, the nauseating odors, ruined the moment.

Still, he could occasionally glimpse the window, and the sight of Mount Fuji crowned in snow emboldened him. It loomed ever closer, until he could make out protrusions and ridges in the rock face. Anna's position was better than Yoh's, and she could see the window during the entire ride.

Every rider collectively lurched forward as the train slowed down before its next stop. "Well, this is us," Yoh thought he heard.

"What?" Then he figured Anna must've said, "This is our stop, but don't worry about getting out, because you'll get shoved anyway, and fall ungracefully onto the platform." She hadn't said that, of course, but it would've been right on target. He rose, adjusted his backpack, and nearly collapsed once more upon seeing the colossus looming before him.

"We…we're going to climb that? You know, it…didn't look quite so high from the window."

Anna rolled her eyes. "You don't say. Maybe the _snow_ could've clued you in?"

"Mm, well, whatever. Time to stretch!" Yoh launched into his warm-up routine, a series of extensions, lunges, pirouettes, and feints that looked—to be charitable—a little silly.

Yoh was tucking his calf behind his back while rotating wildly when he thought he heard laughing.

"What's so funny?" he asked, hopping on one foot as he switched legs and began to twirl in the opposite direction.

"N—nothing," Anna gasped, followed by a torrent of unrestrained laughter. "Oh, Yoh, you look like a retarded top!"

"Grrr…We'll see who's retarded when you catch cramps halfway up!"

"Whatever. I know how to stretch. Properly." She sat down on the gravelly path and proceeded to loosen up her hamstrings. Yoh, his stretching done, took a moment to regain his balance from all the spinning and staggered over to Anna's side. She cocked her head and reprimanded, "Don't just stand there! Help keep my legs still."

Yoh didn't quite know what to make of this. He circled a timid hand around each of her ankles. They were reassuringly warm, and incredibly delicate—Yoh's hands were smallish and still the fingertips 

almost touched. Anna lunged forward, aiming for her toes, and closed her eyes from the exertion. She pulled back and lurched again, this time missing by just an inch.

"Wow, Anna, I didn't know you were so limber," Yoh said, impressed.

"I keep in shape, unlike—" Anna took in a sudden, jagged gasp of air.

"What..." Yoh had injured himself from overzealous stretching before, and knew the feeling well: An overstretched muscle knots itself up and painfully resists unclenching. Yoh saw the tensed tendon in her calf—the leg was twitching—and he winced. "Sorry…Anna… this might hurt a little," he whispered as he touched his fingers to the uncooperative muscle.

Anna gave several more sharp inhalations as Yoh's fingertips coaxed the muscle into relaxing. Gradually he felt the hard tendon go slack. The leg ceased twitching. For good measure, Yoh continued to massage the calf. He admired its smoothness, its soft resilience. Gradually his purposeful massage became a tender caress…

"Ah, Anna, is that…feeling better?" he stammered once he realized what he was doing.

She opened her eyes and exhaled deeply. "Yes…hey, listen…Yoh…"

"Hm?"

"I…thank you."

Embarrassed and surprised, Yoh laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. "No…no problem at all, Anna."

Still a little stunned, Yoh stood up and offered both of his hands to Anna. She hesitated for a second before clasping her fingers around his slightly sweaty palms. With his help, she rose to her feet, but the calf muscle had its last hurrah…

"Ahh!" Her knee buckled. Panicking, she relinquished her grip on Yoh's palms. Her free hands shot out to her sides, attempting to regain equilibrium, but she swooned forward. Her arms swooped together before her like pincers, hoping to break her fall on her hands…

The arms, however, had wrapped around something that was certainly not the ground.

Although Anna had just lost her footing, it was Yoh who now felt off balance. There he stood, having just caressed Anna's legs, and now she was…embracing him? Sure, it was just an accident, really, but Anna felt no less warm and tender clinging to his chest. Warmth tickled him, first his chest, then down to his legs. His breathing accelerated, and, racing with adrenaline, his arms returned Anna's hug. At this, the warmth rushed to his head, particularly his right cheek…

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Yoh shook his head and took a step back. He saw a furious Anna, standing in a martial pose. The instability in her legs was gone, and her left hand was extended all the way to her right. The warmth he had perceived in his cheek was now stinging.

"I…thought you were going to fall again, so," Yoh began lamely, but Anna cut him off.

"Liar!" For just a second, the image of Anna's face, etched with lines of anger, burned itself into Yoh's wide eyes. She strode past him tensely, leaving him staring blankly into the distance until he sighed softly, turned around, and started up the path. The memory of her slap kept him several paces behind.

Anna's icy demeanor wasn't thawed at all, not even by the incessant sun that, minute by minute, crept ever higher into the cloudless sky. A kind of glacial silence, interrupted only by heavy footfalls onto gravel, endured between them. Were Yoh courageous enough to attempt conversation, he would have remarked upon how deserted the path was. It unsettled him that the few people he encountered on his way up were invariably headed in the opposite direction, but he reasoned they must have been dissuaded by the merciless heat more than anything else.

Yoh bitterly reflected upon how beautiful the sunrise and the mountain had looked from afar, yet up close they were pedestrian, not to mention exhausting. It reminded him of the other fatal attraction in his life, the one that was still walking several paces ahead of him…

The view, too, was uninspiring, almost depressing. The trail was just an endless, ever-climbing expanse of gray on brown. Every now and then Yoh shifted his gaze to the horizon. He was aloft enough so that the view was decent, but he noted pessimistically it was nothing he couldn't see from Tokyo Tower, and with air conditioning to boot. He took much more delight out of sneaking occasional glances at Anna's back. Her steps were measured and deliberate, and she showed no signs of discomfort. That was remarkable, considering the blackness of her outfit and the simmering heat Yoh felt, even in his white T-shirt and loose khakis.

But even she had a threshold for endurance. "Pass me my water, Yoh." Judging from Yoh's reaction to her request, she might as well have asked for a lavender elephant on roller skates. He had expected the frigid silence to last, appropriately enough, till the end of the next Ice Age.

"Er, sure, thing, Anna," he said once the shock wore off. He swung his shoulder around, groped in his backpack, and withdrew two bottles of water. He pressed one of them into Anna's hand. She impatiently unscrewed the cap and bolted down a gulp of refreshment.

"It uh, sure is hot today, huh?" he asked, taking a sip himself.

Anna closed her eyes dramatically. "Not at all. I just want to stay hydrated." Her eyes were open again, and looking up to the peak towering over them. "If you think the climate is bad now, just wait till we get near the top. You'll be begging for this heat, mark my words."

"But," Yoh began, cowed a little at the sight of the peak, "we're not going that far today, are we?"

"Are you kidding? I didn't come all the way here to climb halfway up Mount Fuji. We're going the whole nine yards, and you're coming with."

"I…Anna, it looks a whole lot farther than nine yards, I think."

She rolled her eyes as the path before them widened into a small rest stop. Steps carved into the rock led down to a weather-beaten door that read "Restrooms." A weathered wooden kiosk labeled "Visitor Information" squatted in the corner of the outcropping, surrounded on two sides by sheer cliff faces. It was unoccupied, but Anna approached it anyway, and swiped a brochure from its front.

She chuckled humorlessly. "Twelve thousand feet. I guess you were right, it's a whole lot more than nine yards."

Yoh nearly spat out his mouthful of water. "Twelve thousand?! Yeah, there's no way we're going to make it. Should we start heading back?"

Anna was so indignant she actually snorted. "Would you wait just a minute? This pamphlet says there are amenities along the trail."

"Amen-a-what?" Yoh's underwhelming scholastic ability failed him. Anna rubbed her forehead with her fingertips.

"Ugh. Amenities. Food and **lodging**."

"Oh."

"So if we absolutely can't finish today, we can just rest in a cabin and start again tomorrow." She made a mess of folding the pamphlet back together, and half-placed, half-crumpled it back where she got it.

"Then," Yoh asked as they passed the information kiosk and hit the trail once again, "couldn't we rest in one of those ameni…amener…**lodging** places and leave once it's not so hot?"

"Sure, we could," she began, and Yoh's face lit up.

"…But that means you'd be my roommate for several hours longer than necessary. And believe me, you don't want that."

Crestfallen, he looked up as he continued walking. Judging both from the sun's position and its heat, he figured it was only about noon, but the temperature was sapping his energy. He wondered if it was making him delirious. The gray pebbles before him, sharply illumined, were painful and blinding to look at, so his listless eyes meandered. At least the view of the surrounding landscape was improving; 

they had escalated enough so that, even on a totally clear day like this one, the distant sprawl of buildings converged into a single grayish line on the indistinguishable horizon. At the other end of his field of vision, Anna was marching on. She was seemingly oblivious to everything—the view, the blistering temperature, her uncomfortable shoes, even Yoh.

_She's always like this_, Yoh mused as the endless gray swath curved out of sight around a bend. _Sometimes I wonder if she has feelings…well, no, I know she has feelings. Anger is a feeling. What's the word I'm looking for? Damn_, he cursed himself around the bend, finding, predictably, the pathway continuing further, this time between billowing rock parapets. _I guess I should take better notes in class. Uh, emotion? No, that's not it either, but I think it starts with "E"…Empathy! That's it. Like, consideration for other people's feelings. Does she care? I really wonder sometimes…_

But pondering Anna's potential mental problems was getting Yoh nowhere. It upset him, or rather it would have, if he even had the energy to be angry anymore. Putting one foot in front of the other was all the exertion he could handle, even as the sun descended and the temperature followed suit. The grade of the path had been increasing steadily, and traversing it was gradually evolving from a nuisance to a taxing ordeal. Still Anna's ascent continued unabatedly. _It's no wonder she's got no empathy for a mere mortal like me, _he thought, half seriously, _since she's something more than human…_

Aside from getting the sun out of Yoh's eyes, the next bend presented a pleasant surprise. There the path broadened, and two wooden structures faced each other in the clearing. The smaller one was probably an outhouse; the larger, most likely one of the cabins Anna had promised. Yoh deviated from his path and opened the cabin door a crack, trying to sneak a peek, but a firm grip on his wrist stopped him.

"Don't even think about it," Anna reprimanded. Her hand moved to the back of his neck, and she shepherded him back to the path.

"But Anna," he protested futilely, "the next cabin could be miles away, or occupied, and then what'll we do?"

Anna suddenly relinquished her grip on Yoh's neck. Startled, he turned around to look at her. She was posing like she was appealing to the heavens. "Yoh, honestly, how did you not fall down the mountain yet? It wouldn't hurt you to be aware of your surroundings." With that, her hand found the back of Yoh's head again, and she pushed his line of sight about half a mile up. What he saw, beyond the jagged protrusions and serrated valleys, made him do a double-take.

"We're that close to the summit?" he asked in a small voice. Indeed, Anna had guided his vision to the exact spot where the bare rock met the blanket of snow that capped the mountain—and it didn't look unreachable anymore.

"Not that, dimwit. Look closer."

"What?" He squinted intently at the convergence of rock and snow. Soon he made out squat brown structures, easily visible against the white background. "Oh!"

"You finally discovered all those cabins. Well, keep sailing, Columbus," she said snidely.

Somehow, despite Anna's insults, the trek was a lot more palatable to Yoh now that the goal was in sight. The sun's descent, coupled with his elevation change, made the temperature pleasantly cool, even slightly chilly, but after the relentless heat it was refreshing. His languid pace quickened, and he found himself keeping pace with the perpetually sprightly Anna now. Even the pebbles that he crushed underfoot seemed encouraging, and as the ambient air chilled further, Yoh simply increased his pace. Much to her surprise, Anna found it was her turn, for the first time since setting foot on the path, to play catch-up.

In fact, it was Yoh who first saw the bank of cabins lining the ridge before him. Anna huffed her way over to him, her breath condensing in the cold. Rather than make a beeline for one of the cabins, as was Yoh's desire, she sidled up to the brink of the ridge and leaned on a cabin wall wordlessly. Yoh left a trail of footprints next to Anna's in the thin, powdery snow. He rifled through his backpack, unfurled his jacket, and spread it upon the ground. He was about to have a seat on it when he noticed Anna's inadequate dress.

"Anna," he mustered the courage to say, "would you like your coat?"

"Hm?" she replied distractedly. She glanced back to Yoh quickly before turning away again. "Oh, sure, I guess…"

He handed her the coat, and she slipped it on inattentively. He scrutinized her, fearing she'd stumble again, only this time at the edge of a precipice.

"See," she declared, sweeping her hand before her, "this is what we came up here for." Anna's voice was, to Yoh, difficult to classify. She had never sounded so relaxed before. _Maybe she's actually satisfied, or even happy?_

If there was ever a sight to make a dour young woman suddenly responsive, Yoh realized as he took in the panorama below, this was it. The sun, now threatening to dip out of sight, cast a golden sheen upon the parade of buildings that marched motionlessly toward the horizon. Here and there a lesser hill interrupted the buildings, rudely demanding an unobstructed view of the sunset. Copses of trees and parks burned an intense orange, their leaves modeling an early autumn. Near the foot of the mountain, Yoh took note of a few geographic features he couldn't see from lower on the mountain. Furthest out was a trio of lakes, the blueness of their water protected from the blazing sunset by a matronly hill, and in front of them, a small forest.

Yoh took a break from the magnificent view and shifted his attention to Anna. The light played upon her features and cast her profile in sharp relief, accentuating her deadly lips and chiseled nose. Her flawlessly smooth skin reflected the light with a uniform glow, and her vibrant blonde hair, for once, had found a rival in the sunset.

He blinked, just once, long and hard, as if trying to dismiss all the beauty before him—the view and, not least of all, Anna—as just a hallucination. Then, upon seeing it all still there after reopening his eyes, he shook his head disbelievingly.

"You know," Yoh offered, with uncharacteristic boldness, "there's room here for two." He patted the free space on his jacket with a nervous hand.

"I—" Anna started, but she gave a slight nod and sat on the very edge of the jacket.

"I've never seen anything like this in my life," Yoh said, and he inwardly wondered whether he meant the sunset or Anna…

"I told you it'd be worth it."

Anna scooted over on the jacket. Her hand hovered noncommittally behind Yoh's back, but placed itself upon the jacket just behind him. "Unforgettable. But…maybe you should take a picture, just in case."

"My camera!" Anna gasped, dismayed. "I knew I forgot something."

"That's a shame. A sunset like this, not a cloud in the sky, no annoying tourists making a ruckus? Definitely a keeper."

Yoh and Anna turned around simultaneously. A bearded man, covered head to toe by a ridiculous yellow raincoat straight out of a _Curious George_ book, raised a wrinkled hand in a congenial wave. Although most of his head was hidden by a hood two sizes too big, one feature—a pointed beard streaked through with gray—poked out of it.

Neither Yoh nor Anna could think of anything to say to this stranger, the first they'd seen in hours. "Ah, a young couple in love. On a romantic rendezvous, eh?" He winked. They both stared straight ahead, not wanting to reveal their blushes to one another.

"But I suppose that's neither here nor there," he concluded, although not without another wink that further flushed their skin. "So, about to have supper, are you?"

"Well, we would be," Anna said once her blush had subsided, "but Genius over here figured, oh, a granola bar each, that should hold us over till Monday afternoon."

He chuckled heartily, so much so that his hood flew backwards to reveal a balding pate thoroughly lined with wrinkles. Yoh guessed he was in his sixties; he reminded him a little of his grandfather. "Well, you can't blame him much, can you? People get awfully stupid when they're in love."

"What?!" Anna protested vehemently, turning a delicate shade of pink as she did so. Yoh said nothing, but looked as uncomfortable as he was red. "Anyway," she continued, trying her best to change the subject, "we would've bought lunch, but all the kiosks were closed."

"You must be starving! How about you two help me finish my dinner? My eyes always seem to be bigger than my stomach."

Hunger won out over politeness, and the couple eagerly watched the man withdraw several foil-wrapped containers from his knapsack. It was all cold, but they didn't care; the ascent had made them ravenous. They inhaled mouthfuls of sushi, sashimi, tempura, and tofu, and washed it all down with generous gulps of tea from the man's canteen.

"I'm not surprised none of the kiosks were occupied, actually. Not many people are brave enough to come up here on this day of the year."

Yoh froze with a piece of sweet potato tempura just inches from his mouth. "Well, that explains how deserted it's been. But what do you mean, 'brave enough'? And what's so special about today?"

The stranger brushed a crumb off his beard. "You must be from out of town." When he saw Yoh nod, he went on. "Well, twenty-five years ago today, a group of three missionaries decided to pay a visit to this mountain. The **rector** of their church goes with them, and they all stay at a nearby hotel. The next afternoon, the missionaries figure they've earned a little break, so they go sightseeing. The **rector** stays back at the hotel to prepare a sermon. He wakes up the next morning to find the hotel room deserted. He starts worrying—missionaries aren't the type to stay out all night—and as he hits the streets to start looking for them, he sees the newspaper headline."

The deep-fried potato morsel was still dangling before Yoh's face. "Well? What did it say?"

"_Three Bodies Found In Aokihagara Forest._"

Yoh shuddered. He was suddenly conscious of the cold air, and contemplated evicting Anna from her seat on his jacket so that he could wear it, but wisely reconsidered.

"It's said they became fixated spirits because they were murdered before they could fulfill their purpose in life."

Yoh swallowed—his throat was dry despite the tea. He'd dealt with fixated spirits before—mellow folks from all walks of life turned into violent, unpredictable spirits because of wrongful death—and the prospect of dealing with _three_ of them, unarmed and unaided, didn't exactly appeal to him. Still, maybe this had all happened far away. _The stranger's just telling a ghost story, right?_

"You're probably wondering what all of this has to do with the mountain. Well," he said, setting down his canteen and pointing at the dark cluster of trees near the lakes Yoh had noticed earlier, "there's Aokigahara Forest."

The morsel of tempura finally left Yoh's fingers—dropped in shock. It tumbled down the cliff, disappearing in the darkness. He had an uncanny sense that it landed somewhere in the forest, where the three missionaries' spirits were preparing to scale the mountain…

Seeing the reaction his little story had on both Yoh and, to a lesser extent, Anna, he gave an avuncular grin. "Oh, don't worry so! Local rumors get overblown. A mountaineer with a lantern becomes a vengeful spirit. A slip and fall is blamed on restless ghosts. You know how it goes. Still," he continued with trepidation, "it's funny how these things always seem to happen on this day…"

The sunset, now completely forgotten, had concluded. Darkness was rapidly descending, and Yoh shivered. "Don't kids appreciate a good ghost story anymore?" the stranger asked as he packed away the now empty food containers. "But seriously, don't let silly superstitions ruin your romantic getaway. Good night!" He did an about-face and slowly walked beyond.

"Like I'm scared!" Yoh blustered, standing up unsteadily. "A restless spirit—like I've never dealt with one of those before, right?"

"Naturally," Anna replied, standing up. In response, Yoh bent over to recover his jacket and wasted no time in pulling it on. "Then again, I don't believe you've ever faced one without your spirit or your sword backing you up."

It was now almost completely dark. What Anna said was true—Amidamaru was bound to his mortuary tablet on a nightstand back at the En Inn, and his sword Harusame leaned a few feet away against the bedroom wall.

"That's alright," Yoh countered, although the bravado in his voice had all but disappeared. "You've got your prayer beads, right?"

"Yeah, because I lug a strand of a thousand and eighty beads with me wherever I go. Fits right into my back pocket," she sarcastically agreed.

"Ah…well, I'm sure it's all just stupid ghost stories anyway." Even Yoh thought he sounded like he was desperately trying to reassure himself.

Anna shrugged. "Let's have a look in this cabin." It was too dark to see her expression, but did Yoh sense urgency, even fear, in her voice? She yanked the door rather forcefully and scampered inside. Yoh closed it behind him and squinted. It was dusk outside, but inside it was pitch-black. Gradually his eyes acclimated to the gloom. At one end of the room he made out a shabby bed—little more than a mattress sagging into a box spring, really—a foggy window, and a table perched beneath it. Set into the wall opposite the bed was a brick fireplace, complete with poker. Even Yoh saw the illogic of this, and commented on it, possibly to make himself think about something other than ghost stories that might be true…

"Ha! A fireplace? Where would I get the wood for that on this bare mountain? Maybe drag some logs all the way up here from the forest—"

Anna, who normally pounced on any opportunity to mock Yoh's stupidity, remained silent.

A shrill creak filled the interior of the cabin. Yoh leapt straight into the air. Frantically swiveling his head around, he yelled, "What the hell was that?!"

"Yoh, relax, geez, I just sat down on the bed, that's all. I'm a little worn out from the hike."

This candid admission was so unlike Anna that it made him even more ill at ease. Still, he preferred it to eerie silence. "I know what you mean. I'm pretty shot myself."

"We were lucky to run into that guy," Anna said as Yoh took a seat on the bed beside her. "Otherwise, we'd probably have starved."

"I dunno. I really could've done without that ghost story." Anna's figure bounced from Yoh's involuntary shudder.

"Yoh, come on," she reasoned, and in the dark her unusually compassionate tone was all the more distinct. "You _live_ with ghosts—the En Inn's absolutely infested. You hang out in graveyards, for God's sake. Three _missionary_ spirits?! What're they going to do, preach you to death?"

"Well, yeah," Yoh protested, turning to see Anna's silvery profile, "but…I've got no weapon and no ally to integrate with here. Just me and my 'slightly tubby' body."

Yoh expected Anna to laugh at this, but her profile remained stoic. He saw a tongue flit out briefly to moisten her deadly lips. "Yoh, you have a great body. You and I both know that."

The moonlight was just strong enough to reveal that Yoh's cheeks had flushed crimson. "No," she went on, "I was just trying to get you to come with me today. I…didn't know about the whole Aokigahara thing, I swear."

She twitched just a little. One of her eyes came into view, veiled in moonlight. It looked directly, penetratingly, at him. "Yoh, I'm sorry."

It was her turn to shiver, and she did so violently. "Are…you cold?"

"F-f-freezing," she chattered. Yoh began to remove his jacket, intending to offer it to her, but before he could so much as slip off a sleeve, two arms knocked him back onto the bed…

Yoh simply lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling, his breath caught somewhere in his pounding chest. He refused to believe that Anna was actually lying right beside him, her arms tightly wrapping his torso, her body pressing on his flank.

But Anna verified that everything was actually happening. "Geez, Yoh, roll over. You know how awkward it is to hug someone from the side?"

She didn't sound annoyed in the least. Still Yoh hesitated, worrying that his racing heart might not withstand what would happen next.

He was conscious of every movement, even through the creases of his jacket and her coat: First his body adhered to hers, and a layer of warmth, evanescent yet palpable, enveloped his chest. It moved on to claim his back where her slender arms embraced him, and on down to his legs when they intertwined shortly thereafter.

"You…you're so warm, Yoh…" Anna's voice was slightly muffled; she was speaking into his shoulder. The way her words tickled upon his skin sent chills down his spine. Her delicate hair grazed his cheek and nose, and when he felt her exhaling on his skin, he realized he hadn't breathed for quite some time. When he finally did, it came in shallow, uncontrolled gasps.

"Don't…read too much into this, Yoh, I just don't want to freeze to death…"

Yoh had been expecting something like that. Still, it didn't detract from the reality of the situation; his staid fiancée was, after all, still embracing him in bed, and even if it was only for utilitarian reasons, it nonetheless took his breath away.

In addition to her mere proximity to him, her warmth was equally reassuring, and lying there after a grueling hike was slowly but surely taking its toll on him. His eyelids grew heavy, his breathing slowed down and stabilized, and his firm grip on Anna's back began to slacken—

A piercing whistle, like a boiling teakettle, penetrated the stout cabin walls—and Yoh's ears. His eyelids ratcheted open. "What…was that?"

"Was" turned out to be the wrong word. The whine persisted and intensified. He swore it was making the window vibrate. Then, once Yoh had firmly shoved his fingers into his ears and was convinced the screech would deafen him, it stopped abruptly.

He leapt from the bed and paced around the cabin nervously. "Oh, geez…Anna, what should I do?"

Anna was still lying on her side, her outstretched arms now embracing nothing.

"Crap…I could go out there and try to scare the spirits away," he muttered, "but wait! Maybe they don't know we're here yet. I'll just lay low and—" The window in the cabin faced the wrong way to provide any visual cues, but the moonlight that filtered through guided him to the fireplace poker. It was crude and unwieldy, but in both of his hands, it vaguely reminded him of Harusame. "All right, now come get some, you damn missionaries!"

As if on cue, the distinct sound of footsteps on snow rang in Yoh's ears.

"Shit, I didn't mean it literally!" Yoh moved just a few paces shy of the door, his weapon at the ready.

A solid _thud_ echoed inside the cabin. The door buckled, and several splinters of wood pricked at Yoh's face. "Damn!" A second impact, stronger than the first, rocked the cabin's foundation so much that the table behind him wobbled.

"Why didn't I think of that…" Yoh set down the poker and grabbed the table by two legs. Orienting it so that the tabletop ran parallel to the wall, he pushed it towards the door, hoping to reinforce it before it was too late…

A third blow knocked one of the door hinges out of commission. It clattered to the floor like an ejected bullet shell.

"Come on!" Yoh and his table were just a few feet from the door now, when suddenly a voice boomed out.

_"Our Father, which art in Heaven…_"

Yoh closed his eyes and cowered in a corner in the cabin, abandoning both the table and his weapon. The missionary spirit's reinforcements had arrived. It was over.

_"Hallowed be thy Name…"_

The snowy footsteps, light and earthy, drew closer. He decided he wouldn't go without a fight; besides, Anna was still sleeping, and he would sooner die than see her attacked on his watch. Yoh recovered the poker into both of his hands. It shook in his frightened grip.

_"Thy kingdom come…"_

A sudden blast of chilly air greeted him through a newly formed crack in the doorframe. Yoh shivered, but managed to get to his feet shakily. Anna still hadn't stirred.

_"Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven…"_

The footsteps stopped, but the unearthly whistle took their place. Yoh cringed, trying to decide whether to drop the poker to plug his ears, but the voice boomed ever louder, reducing the shrill howl to a mere annoyance.

_"Give us this day our daily bread…"_

The whistling subsided instantly, but a much more sinister sound replaced it, something like a basket of hissing snakes. He also recognized the sound of displaced air, like the spirits were darting about outside, perhaps preparing for their final strike to the damaged door…

Then he heard the most disturbing sound of all: a noise uncannily like a scream. Its anguish echoed in the cabin and down the cliff behind him. The voice, still strong but now a little strained, continued shortly thereafter.

_"And forgive us our trespasses…as we forgive those who trespass…against us…"_

The _whoosh_es of air from outside stopped. The footsteps were no more. A tense silence momentarily reigned. Yoh could hear his frenzied beating, his rapid pulse thumping in his ears.

_"Lead us not…into…temptation…"_

A dull thud, like a sack of flour smacking the ground, set the cabin's floor shaking. Then, a flurry of footsteps milled about atop the snow. The final words were the loudest and most strained of all, and Yoh stood in wide-eyed fright as they boomed down the mountain:

_"But…deliver…us…from…evil!"_

As soon as the last word had been uttered, a terrible wave of discordance emanated from the scene just outside the door. A mishmash of squeals, shrieks, groans, and grunts, as loud and jarring as it was quick, burst in on Yoh's ear. He glanced over at Anna, who somehow had slept through the ruckus. He thought, now that the prayer was over, and given how awful that last sound had been, that the final blow would come any minute now.

"Anna," he said, his voice steely, "I'm going out there." He cast a final, beseeching glance at Anna, who gave no indication of hearing him. Then he gave the poker a test swing, took a deep breath, and ran straight for the door, kicking it open on the way.

The sight that awaited him was nothing at all what he had expected. Rather than a trio of malicious spirits congregating before his door, there was a single figure standing in the snow, supporting himself with what appeared to be a bishop's staff. He wore a now very tattered yellow raincoat, its hood dangling by a few threads. It was hard to tell who looked more startled.

The stranger broke the silence first. "So they came after all."

"What—what did they do to you?!" Yoh asked, seeing all the tears and rips in his raincoat.

"Oh, nothing much," he said dismissively. "All they wanted was a chance to finish what they started. And what better way than to recite the Lord's Prayer with their old **rector**?"

Yoh flinched. "You—they were your disciples?"

He nodded gravely. "It's been twenty-five years, and goodness knows how much longer I have before the afterlife claims me. I…I've always been afraid of the supernatural, but I finally decided it's up to me to placate those vengeful spirits before they claim any more lives."

Yoh took a deep breath. He was relieved that the fixated spirits had been exorcised, but inwardly he was a little dismayed that an old guy in a ludicrous raincoat was responsible. Still, he wasn't unappreciative. "Thanks…You're very brave, you know, I was hiding in that cabin till the last possible moment…"

"Nonsense," the **rector** said, waving his staff before him. "What the heck did you imagine you'd get accomplished, swinging at fixated spirits with a fireplace poker? No, that girlfriend of yours is very lucky to be with a brave kid like you."

"He's…he's right, you know," came a soft voice from behind him.

Yoh whipped his body around. Anna was leaning upon the doorway, her hair mussed, her necklace off kilter. "I…was only pretending to be asleep," she admitted, abashedly twirling her finger in her hair. "I was too afraid to move. But you were ready to face those spirits to keep…to keep me safe…"

In two long, purposeful strides, Anna left her perch at the doorway and strode before Yoh. Before he could anticipate what would happen next, her arms were tightly encircling his waist. Yoh recalled their earlier hug in the cabin. "What's—what's the matter, are you cold again?"

"I…I know I can be, sometimes," she said from deep within his chest. "But what you just did for me is going to keep my heart warm for quite some time."

Yoh smiled—a stupidly ecstatic grin that, much to his surprise, was mirrored, feature for feature, in the beautiful face that looked back at him.

"Well, I've got a sermon to write," the **rector** said by way of farewell. "But what are you waiting for, son? Hurry up and kiss her!"

He could still hear his footsteps down the mountain when his lips touched hers. He recalled, as his hand caressed the back of her neck, how hearing those footsteps had terrified him just moments ago, but now, the only thing left to fear was Yoh waking up and discovering this kiss was just a dream. Surely it had all the trappings of fantasy—atop Japan's highest mountain, having just talked to a spirit-banishing **rector** in an outlandish raincoat, and, most unbelievable of all, having hugged his notoriously cold fiancée not once, but twice—but the tenderness, the warmth, the passion, of the lips locked upon his, was undeniably real. Everything—the heat, the cold shoulder, the fear—was worth enduring just for that one transient moment their lips were sharing, and nothing—not the spectacular view, nor the **rector**'s feast—could hope to rival their sublime kiss…

"Y'know," Yoh said once their lips finally parted, "I…I love you, Anna."

"Love you too, Yoh." No hesitation. Yoh's heart skipped a beat.

"Can I say something?" he asked.

"Sure. What?"

"I have to admit…being this close to you is giving me a really hard **rector**—"

"Don't push your luck."

"Okay, okay. What if I said that I wouldn't mind **lodging** my **rector** in your—"

"I love you, but I swear I'm gonna shove you off this cliff."


	29. That Takes the Cake

Note: This was written as a class assignment. I was supposed to use as many cliches as I could, and I think I went above and beyond the call of duty this time...but you be the judge! (Don't take this story too seriously, the plot takes a back seat to all of the cliches.)

Enjoy!

That Takes the Cake

_Kiss #28_

(Clichés are underlined throughout)

They say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, but this was news to Yoh Asakura. He sulked over his lot in life, even now, as he rinsed pots and pans in the sink. It was about as stimulating as watching paint dry, but after having done all the cooking in the house for the better part of two years, the hollow metallic ring of water against pot was music to his ears compared to the living hell of Anna's "special training regimen."

_Speak of the devil_, he thought as he caught sight of his fiancée from the corner of his eyes. He didn't have time to prepare himself for the mayhem that inevitably followed when she graced him with her presence, though. "Yoh! Drop whatever you're doing and break out the mixing bowl on the double!" she screamed bloody murder.

"Take it easy, Anna," he soothed, though inwardly he was coming to pieces. _Let loose the hounds of hell__. Anna's __seeing red__ and __taking no prisoners__…_ "What's gotten into you, anyway? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"You don't say," she snapped sarcastically. "In light of the fact that we're both shamans, seeing ghosts is part and parcel of our job, you know. But that's beside the point. Get your act together!" she demanded, slamming the countertop for emphasis. "If I don't see that mixing bowl in five seconds, there'll be hell to pay!"

"All right, all right, keep your shirt on," Yoh muttered, softly enough to be just out of earshot. He hit the deck and began rummaging under the sink, hoping to find the wayward cooking implement. After peering into every nook and cranny, he found it hidden in plain sight. "Ah, there it is! I'm not letting you out of my sight," he said, triumphantly spinning the bowl upon his finger.

"Three cheers," Anna said, clearly not brimming with praise. "But I'm only getting started. You'll also have to come up with some flour, eggs, a whisk, sugar…" Anna was rattling off a laundry list of ingredients. At first he made it a point to simply memorize them, but he couldn't wrap his mind around the various and sundry reagents she was still listing. "Nutmeg" might have been the ingredient that tipped the scales, or perhaps "chocolate chips" was the straw that broke the camel's back; in any event, Yoh now found himself scampering around the kitchen in hot pursuit of the ingredients while they were fresh in his mind.

"I swear to God, it's just in one ear and out the other with you, isn't it?" Anna took a fine-toothed comb to Yoh's selections, making a fuss whenever she didn't see eye to eye with one of them. "_Nutmeg_, not _paprika_, for crying out loud! If you want to eat a paprika-flavored cake, I couldn't care less. But I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole."

"Jeez, get off my case," Yoh mumbled, again quietly enough so that you could hear a pin drop. Louder now, he asked, "So I'm baking a cake, huh? That's a fine kettle of fish." Anna, already on the brink of madness, positively went into conniptions at his mixed metaphor. It slowly dawned on him that it might be in his best interest to change the subject. "Anyway, what's the special occasion?"

"I'm going to a friend's birthday party tomorrow and I can't come empty-handed. On my budget, buying a gift is out of the question. She's got quite the sweet tooth, though, so giving her a cake fits her like a glove. Plus, if I have you whip it up for me, it'll cost me not one thin dime. Icing on the cake!"

"Laying it on a bit thick, don't you think?" Yoh asked, groaning at the terrible pun.

"Whatever. I just like the idea of killing two birds with one stone."

"The way I see it, this cake is killing way more than two birds," Yoh commented as an egg met with a messy end on the side of the bowl. "Let this be a lesson to you. Don't count your chickens before they've hatched."

It was Anna's turn to groan, and she followed suit. "A taste of my own medicine." She turned around and had one foot out the door when Yoh's voice stopped her dead in her tracks.

"Just a minute!" Yoh protested. "I can't help but feel I'm getting the short end of the stick here." A handful of eggshells slipped out of his angry hand and rushed headlong to the floor. "Here's the lay of the land. You're off to have the time of your life at this party, while I work my fingers to the bone? This has happened a thousand times before," he continued, although the voice at the back of his head urged him to put a damper on his impending rant. "I'm sick and tired of being at your beck and call."

Anna's usually stoic face lit up like a Christmas tree. However, she did not break the silence. Yoh, seething with rage, carried on. "Anna, I'm starting to think, from the bottom of my heart, that…"

Yoh knew he was about to say something that he could never take back, but he couldn't keep it to himself any longer. Staring his fiancée directly in her wide eyes, he finished, "Agreeing to marry you was the biggest mistake of my life."

Upon speaking those words, Yoh felt as though all the wind had been knocked out of his sails. He gasped like a fish out of water and a slow, sinking feeling engulfed him. _Well,__ that's all she wrote_, he thought as he tried to size up Anna's reaction to his outburst. _I __dug my own grave__ there…_

Much to his surprise, Anna merely looked shaken, but not stirred. Then again, although it obviously wasn't Yoh's forte, hiding one's true feelings was second nature to Anna. He felt a chill run up his spine as she turned to face him directly and licked her ruby red lips, preparing to speak.

He breathed a huge sigh of relief when he noticed she wasn't screaming to the high heavens. "It…sounds like you've got quite the axe to grind, Yoh."

Yoh still suffered from nagging doubts, but he steeled himself and pressed on. "You better believe it. Where do I begin?"

Anna bridged the gap between Yoh and herself in three nervous strides. "What…is bothering you the most?"

…_Said the spider to the fly_, Yoh thought apprehensively. _Why's Anna suddenly __letting her guard down__? Usually she avoids any display of emotion __like the plague__. This sudden __one-eighty__'s __throwing me for a loop__. Do I __go with the flow__ here? Oh…she's waiting for me to answer…then,__ into the lion's den__…_

"Lots of things, here and there," he hemmed and hawed. "But number one with a bullet would have to be this whole…" He gestured with his hands, trying to put into words what he felt. "You know, you're a ticking time bomb! The slightest thing could set off your itchy trigger finger." His nervous pacing was crushing to a powder the eggshells he had dropped. "I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm tired of walking on eggshells."

Anna had nothing to say. It was obvious that her ability to stay cool and collected in the face of Yoh's anger was putting him ill at ease. He toyed with the ingredients still scattered hither and yon. Hoping against hope to pretend nothing had happened, he started adding this and that to the mixing bowl again. He tried to measure out a level teaspoonful of oil, but found his hands shaking too much to be even in the ballpark.

Yoh found himself speaking once more, against his will, as he whisked the ingredients together. "We're…I think…it's just not meant to be," he said, increasing the intensity of his mixing as the oil kept rearing its ugly head out of the mixture. "We're like oil and water. And I know opposites attract, but we're like night and day. I value my free time, but that doesn't sit well with you, now, does it?" Yoh hadn't meant to point any fingers, but he couldn't keep the accusatory tone out of his voice. "No, you want me slaving away every waking hour! I know it's a tired turn of phrase, but I mean it: Give me a break, Anna. For both of our sakes, give me a break."

"Yoh," Anna finally said, getting a word in edgewise, "we went over that before, remember?" Her voice was a calm blue ocean, maybe even a little beseeching, and it was so unusual it caught Yoh off guard. "All the training…is for your own good…"

"My foot!" Yoh roared as he poured the mixing bowl's contents into a cake tin. "Remember that demon that tortured you to within an inch of your life? Of course you do—who could forget? Well then, you remember who your knight in shining armor was, don't you? ME!" he boomed. "I put my ass on the line, came _this_ close to winding up six feet under. But it went off without a hitch, right? The demon went back whence it came. _That_, you see, was 'for your own good'. Not this," he finished, scraping the last bits of batter off the bowl with a fork. He waved it in the air for emphasis. "Stick a fork in me. I'm done."

"But then," Anna stammered, "if you hate it so much, why'd you hold out for so long?"

He mixed a few drops of red food coloring into the frosting, and it took on the delicate hue of roses. "Oh, Anna, I saw the world through rose-colored glasses back then. We were just in middle school, after all, and first love grabs your heart and never lets go."

Anna looked thunderstruck. "Love?"

"Don't be such a doubting Thomas. What _wasn't_ there to love? You used to laugh all the time, and it never failed to bring a smile to my face. Yes, I was truly, madly, deeply in love. And then the Shaman Fight rained on our parade. Your smiles never saw the light of day again. You put my nose to the grindstone, and somehow you just kind of drifted away. I don't like it," he concluded, setting down the pink frosting, "but I let myself fall for you, so hard. I got my just desserts."

"But…Yoh, you have to understand," Anna pled, abandoning all pretense of maintaining the demeanor Yoh detested. "I can't stand the thought of you…kicking the bucket just because I didn't make you train harder…"

"Can't you see?!" Yoh raged. "I'm _already _dead! I'm dead tired from this round-the-clock regimen. And I'm dead to you."

"Yoh…oh, don't…the night is always darkest right before dawn…what can I do to make things right? I can't take this feeling that…"

Yoh was preheating the oven. His back was turned to her. He said flatly, "If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen."

The rest was silence.

* * *

Yoh stared at the cake he had made with his own two hands. True, it wasn't perfect, and it certainly had more than its fair share of blemishes, but just the same, seeing it gave him such a rush. He was so enthralled by the cake that the soft footsteps behind him went unnoticed.

"Yoh," called a voice behind him. He swiveled around in the blink of an eye.

"Anna! I—" he stuttered, but words couldn't express what he wanted to say anyway. Together they looked down at the cake before them, in a kind of reverential hush.

"Thank you, Yoh."

"Think nothing of it. Was a piece of cake, really."

Anna sighed. "No, I mean…Yoh, thank you. For everything. The cake. Doing all the housework and the chores. And last but not least, putting up with me, day in and day out."

Yoh knew it was a cliché to go by the books and reply with a "You're welcome," so he broke the mold and instead replied wordlessly with his lips. Yoh would've seen the sparks of their kiss had his eyes been open, but they were glued shut from the passion of the moment. It was an act of love, sure, but for both of them it was more so an act of contrition—and that being the case, judging from their kiss' intensity, both Yoh and Anna were as sorry as sorry can get.

"Hold the phone," Anna said once their lips finally parted. "Am I seeing double? Why are there _two_ cakes?"

"Oh, there was some leftover cake batter, so I thought I'd go the extra mile and make another. It's the best thing since sliced bread…or cake, at least."

"Er…About that, you see…the whole party thing…how should I put it?" she asked, wondering if she should mince words or bite her tongue. "It was a little white lie."

The irritation in Yoh's face at this news was plain as day. "How _could_ you?!"

Anna realized she just might be up the creek without a paddle. Nonetheless, she knew that honesty was the best policy, so she finished what she started. "I just thought it'd be a nice change of pace to pull out all the stops and have some dessert."

"I guess you got more than you bargained for."

"I did, right as rain. Yoh, listen," she said, finding it hard to look him in the eyes, "I don't say this often, but…I'm sorry I pulled the wool over your eyes."

"It's okay," Yoh managed after the shock of her apology wore off. "No skin off my back."

"Really?"

"Yeah! Besides, this way," he said, struggling to hold back a laugh, "you _can_ have your cake and eat it too!"

Even Yoh knew that was a bridge too far, but Anna took it upon herself to point it out. "Don't push your luck."

Yoh shrugged. "All's well that ends well!"


	30. All I Want for Christmas

Summary: It's Christmastime again, and tension reigns in the En Inn over the subject of presents.

Written: Christmas Eve 2008.

Rating: **T** for some language and innuendo.

So it's been a long time, but I thought I owed it to my readers to do a Christmas story. I'm quite burned out from finals week, but I do hope you enjoy this story!

All I Want for Christmas

_Kiss #29_

"_If you don't want to get me down, just leave the presents and then leave me alone."_

_-Blink 182, "It's Christmastime Again"_

"It's today?" Yoh asked, glancing from unadorned wall to wall. "Christmas? How could you tell?"

Indeed, the interior of the En Inn betrayed no hint of the holiday season. Aside from Yoh and the perpetually unimpressed Anna, not a creature was stirring—not even a mouse. "Pfeh!" Anna spat in reply. "All the garish tinsel and mall Santas and holiday cheer. Wake me up in January," she said, frowning at the TV as a commercial set in Santa's workshop flickered on.

"I'll never understand why you hate Christmas so much," Yoh observed, sauntering over to the refrigerator. "Care for some egg nog, Anna?"

Despite already knowing the answer to his question, he grabbed two glasses off the dishrack. Sure enough, it provoked another tirade. "Keep your implements of Christmas cheer to yourself, thank you very much. This whole season makes me nauseous. Why can't we all be like groundhogs? Sleeping through this whole Godforsaken charade and waking up in the middle of February sounds good to me."

Yoh returned to his perch behind Anna's couch, a thin film of egg nog still clinging to his lips. "They're also afraid of their own shadow half the time," he pointed out. "I think you're braver than that. Although I wonder what it is about this season you're _really_ afraid of?"

"Afraid?!" she screeched. "Who's afraid here? I just hate the way these multinational corporations create this intimate illusion of ''tis better to give than to receive' while they rake in our yen by the boatload."

"Spare me the economics lecture," Yoh ribbed, taking a sip of egg nog. "You don't give a _dango_ about these companies getting rich off of the Christmas season. You're just afraid of opening yourself up."

"Why—how dare you!" Anna bellowed. The scathing look in her eyes alerted Yoh to the possibility that he had gone a step too far. "I don't give anyone anything for Christmas, and I don't expect anything in return! There's nothing more to it than that!"

"Fair enough," Yoh said, mostly because he wanted to give her some time to calm down. "But...let's pretend for the moment that we exist in some parallel dimension where we're not shamans and you observe Christmas. What would you want to get as a present?"

Anna looked somewhat startled to be asked such a question so directly—even if it was strictly hypothetical. "Oh, I don't know...how about restoring this inn so that it can start taking in customers again? That would be nice...'Miss Anna, what a lovely little inn you run here...and your husband, so obedient...I'm definitely telling all my friends about this place...'"

Every trace of rage had cleared from Anna's eyes. In its place was a blissful, spaced-out gaze at nothing, and for once the eternal angry wrinkle above her nose was smoothed out. All of Yoh's attention was now focused upon this tranquil face, a sight he yearned to see every waking moment yet so rarely had chance to appreciate.

"And the guest rooms...of course you will need to change the linens every morning—What are you staring at?" she asked, interrupting Yoh's mesmerized look.

"Ah—nothing. It's just that, okay, let me rephrase my question a little. If you were to receive a gift for Christmas, and the price limit was—" he checked his pockets—"eleven hundred and forty-five...no, forty-six, yen...hypothetically speaking of course, then what would you want to get?"

"Smooth. Nice try, but you don't need to get me anything this year."

"But Anna, I _want_ to get you a present!"

"No, you don't," she replied, although not without hesitating for just an instant first. "You _think_ you want to because that's what all the commercials tell you. Besides, if you got me something, I'd have to reciprocate."

"Uh, can we keep the vocabulary on a level I'd understand?"

Anna sighed. "I'd have to...get you a present in return."

"Ah. Well, no, that's not completely true. Look, Anna, you're not supposed to feel _obligated_ to get people stuff for Christmas. You're supposed to want to, you know, from the heart?"

Her only answer to that was a derisive grunt. Yoh sighed. "I'm just going to have to guess at what you want, then. But I'm getting you a present no matter what. Because I _want_ to."

"No!" Yoh's gaze snapped to Anna at that. She had yelled a lot louder than she had meant to. "I mean, look, I'm letting you have the day off from your training. Why would you want to _do_ anything today? Just hang out around here.

"You...you really don't understand." Yoh wasn't asking. He knew from her response that she just didn't _get_ Christmas. "Well...seeing as it's Christmas Day I probably won't find anything, but I have to try. I'm going to the Don Quijote, I'll be back soon."

"See ya," Anna called over her shoulder as she heard the front door slide open and shut again. Somehow, although the door had only been letting in the chilly December air for a moment, the house felt much colder in the absence of her fiance. Shaking her head—or perhaps shivering from the sudden chill—she mashed buttons on the remote harder than was necessary. The volume of the TV increased accordingly, but the sound of jingling bells filled the air. "This holiday season," intoned the announcer's voice, "don't you want to be with the people who mean the most to you?"

"Ugh," she groaned, positively smashing the buttons on the remote to change the channel. "Tonight at 7, watch a special encore presentation of the heartwarming Christmas story beloved by millions..."

"Jeez, give me a break!" She shut the set off in disgust and stood up. Not really knowing what else to do, she paced about the house, leaving the sanctity of the living room in favor of the immaculately cleaned kitchen. She peered out the window. Outside, the gray rock garden was flecked with spots of white. More white flakes were lazily drifting down from the sky to join them.

"Snow on Christmas. Oh come on, that's laying it on a bit thick, don't you think?"

There was no denying the emptiness of the desolate house then. Much as she hated the prospect of seeing so much holiday mirth on the streets, she couldn't stand the way that every sign pointed to what she knew she had to do then. With a final, resigned sigh, Anna halfheartedly slung her signature taupe coat over her shoulders and took one last glance through the snowy windowpanes...

As the largest department store chain in Japan, Don Quijote had a reputation for the merchandise on its tightly spaced shelves to be orderly and neat. Christmas Day threw a monkey wrench in the works, and Yoh found himself goose-stepping over toppled displays and mounds of potential presents that hadn't quite cut it. _Maybe Anna was right,_ he thought despite himself. _All these Christmas specials on TV have brainwashed me. The _real_ Christmas miracle will be finding a present on my budget on the day of the celebration._

Adding to his woes was the salient fact that he had no idea what to buy. Yoh was a notoriously bad gifter, and the lack of merchandise made it even less likely that he would find something that would meet with Anna's approval. He began his search in housewares, although his shoestring budget precluded buying anything remotely useful. He completely skipped the electronics section—he would be lucky to buy half an extension cord with his meager savings—and settled into one of the many aisles of food. _The way to my heart is my stomach,_ he reasoned, _but is that old saying true for girls too? It's a moot point anyway. I don't have enough money to buy anything else._

He bypassed an aisle full of snacks—_Anna would never eat them, she's so worried about her figure...as if there's anything to worry about there, man, talk about a body that never quits_, and at that point he smacked himself for letting his mind wander. He made his way to an aisle of canned drinks, and imagined something there might be useful to Anna. As he scanned the stacks of cans, his eyes caught sight of a misplaced article on one of the shelves.

_What's this?_ he wondered as he turned the object over in his hands. It was a plastic pouch filled with a clear liquid, and suspended within it was a small round silver object. He squinted at the writing printed upon the pouch. "Damn, it's hard enough to read _kanji_ and these are so tiny...Oh! It's perfect!"

Yoh was next in line at the cashier when he realized he had no idea how expensive his planned gift was. He hoped that the coins in his pocket would cover it. _If not, I'm back to square one..._

The cashier was being kept busy by some hiccup with the register. His customer was sliding his credit card through the scanner repeatedly, as if the magnetic strip would immediately clear whatever technical glitch was slowing down the system. The anxiety was killing Yoh. He swallowed hard, watching the register display with an inappropriate degree of intensity. Finally the register squealed as it printed out a receipt, and the customer, sighing in relief, tucked away his magic credit card and pushed his shopping cart towards the door.

_The moment of truth,_ Yoh thought, _is here..._

A sidewalk cafe, closed for the holiday but offering a couple of unattended tables and seats, provided Anna with a place to sit and rest. She watched her breaths—short and hot—lengthen into wisps of cold vapor. Before her the streets were eerily deserted, and the storefronts were shuttered. Not a single set of footsteps were pressed into the thin layer of fresh snow. For all her dislike of Christmas, her surroundings were peaceful, and she could ignore all of the _Merry Christmas_ banners and lights strung about. She couldn't ignore, though, the rough grating of heavy footsteps upon the downy snow. She looked up to see the intruder, and found him, along with a female companion. They looked to be high schoolers, and from their gestures and facial expressions, they also looked to be less than immersed in the holiday spirit. They rambled nearer, and Anna could now hear their heated conversation.

"I had to study for those final exams, and they wouldn't let me take any days off from my part-time job," the boy pleaded. "I told you, Tomoko, I'm really sorry I didn't have time to find you a present."

"And to think I went through all that trouble to get yours, Shunichi. Do you have _any_ idea how bare the shelves get this time of year? And how long the lines get? You know, _I_ had to study too, and somehow I managed to get you a gift. Wanna explain that one to me?"

"I...look," the boy said, now stopping to sit down on the table immediately opposite Anna's. He made no indication of noticing her; indeed, all of his attention was still focused on his girlfriend. "I screwed up, alright? I was almost failing history, and I got so wrapped up in cramming for the test I didn't notice how close it was getting to Christmas. I only got that job so I could pay for your gift, you know...But it's the thought that counts, right? Don't you agree?"

"Yes. I do." The girl's voice sent chills down Anna's spine. She even shivered, although it made her realize how obvious it was that she was eavesdropping. She averted her gaze and shifted her coat as the girlfriend continued. "But don't _you_ agree that completely forgetting to actually _get_ the present is pretty thoughtless?"

"I—I, but, I can still buy it tomorrow! Then you'll see how hard I've been working for your present—"

"You just don't get it, do you?" the girl seethed. Her tone of voice definitely put her ill at ease; it reminded her of...someone she knew very well... "I don't care if you give me a million yen tomorrow. Today is Christmas, and you got me nothing. If you're going to forget something as special as today, maybe it would be best if we stopped seeing each other."

The boy recoiled at this suggestion. Standing up, he rebutted, "But...can't you...my intentions were good!"

"Well," the girl spat, "you know what they say the road to hell is paved with."

They continued arguing as they proceeded past the sidewalk cafe and on down the snowy lane. Flakes of feathery snow continued to parachute between the buildings. Anna stood up and watched the couple shrink as they passed by all the festive storefronts and decorated trees. She couldn't stop thinking about the girl, even as she made her way through the city streets. She persisted in her memory, she knew, because of the similarities in their personalities. Indeed, which was colder, she wondered—the weather, or her demeanor.

"And Yoh wonders why I hate this season," Anna muttered as she sought refuge from the chill in the only open store she had seen so far.

"Huh," grunted the cashier, "you're lucky to find one of these in this weather."

Yoh nodded, wishing he could skip the pleasantries and just get the price.

"These things are so convenient, too," he continued, turning it over in his hands. The silver insert drifted lazily within the liquid, like a snowflake in a gentle updraft. "Everyone should have one."

"Mm, I hope I will have one soon too," Yoh agreed weakly, nervously fingering the coins in his pocket. _When is he gonna pass it over the scanner?_

"Well, I'm sure you have better things to do on Christmas Day than exchange small talk with a cashier," he laughed, finally ringing up Yoh's purchase. _You couldn't be more right_, he thought. The amount of his purchase blinked on the register display. Yoh felt his stomach knot when he read it; then, as if to shatter all hopes of the display being in error, the cashier spoke. "Twelve hundred and forty-six yen, please."

_Oh, you're kidding...That's just mean,_ Yoh thought. _I'm exactly one hundred yen short. Unless,_ he reasoned desperately, _maybe I miscounted..._

Yoh felt foolish dumping the contents of his pocket onto the countertop. He sorted the coins by denomination and counted them carefully, hoping a 100-yen coin had gone unnoticed. _Eleven hundred and forty-six. Well, so much for that._

A dull silver coin, almost exactly the same size and color as the disc within Yoh's purchase, bounced off the countertop and landed squarely inside the pile.

"That's all the money I have on me. Talk about your Christmas miracles."

Yoh's head jerked to the speaker, although the voice could only belong to one young woman he knew. "_Anna?!_"

"You were expecting Mrs. Claus?"

"Honestly?" Yoh asked, flabbergasted. "Yes, I think seeing Santa's sleigh here would be more likely than seeing you out and about on Christmas. About a hundred times more likely, actually."

"Miracle number two," Anna replied as Yoh picked up his plastic shopping bag and left the cashier wondering about what exactly had just happened.

"Well, I don't know what in the world made you change your mind," Yoh said once they had exited the store, "but in any case, don't you want to see what I got for you?" He slid the plastic bag handle off his fingers and presented it to Anna.

Five slender and warm fingers stopped him.

"I appreciate it. I really do. Look, I'm really glad you thought of me this Christmas. That alone is more than I've ever done for you."

Yoh began to protest, but another set of fingers pressed themselves against his lips to shut him up. "So I'm sure whatever you got me is nice, and thoughtful, and all of that sentimental crap. But I don't care. Whatever's in this bag, I don't want it."

Yoh didn't know where Anna was going with her speech; it almost sounded to him as though she was opening up to him just a little—in other words, he was now in completely foreign territory. "Then," he managed to ask, "what _do _you want?"

"On the way here," she said, looking warmly into Yoh's mystified eyes, "I stumbled upon the answer. And no, I don't feel any differently about today. It does more harm than good, especially the presents. This 'spirit of Christmas' that everyone talks about should be within everyone year-round. On Christmas, or in the middle of June, what I want is exactly the same."

"Which is?"

"Oh, Yoh," she sighed, with a trace of that familiar impatience that reassured him that he was still dealing with his fiancee. "All I want for Christmas is you."

Yoh and Anna shared a long, meaningful glance that gradually turned into an embrace. Anna's closeness warmed Yoh, but he still shivered from the intimacy. What she had just said was a lot for him to take in, he thought, but he would deal with that later—in the here and now, only she, and the hug they shared, mattered.

"By the way," Anna said, her voice muffled by Yoh's jacket, "we're standing under mistletoe."

Yoh broke off his eye contact with Anna for just a second to check. "No we're not!"

"We're standing," Anna tried again, in a tone of voice that left no room for argument, "under goddamn mistletoe."

Yoh tried to correct her once more, but found it very difficult to speak with Anna's lips upon his. The mistletoe may have been imagined, but their kiss wasn't, and it only grew more intense the longer it lasted. He couldn't verbally point out the lack of mistletoe, but he was sure trying, or at least his tongue was moving as though he was speaking. Anna replied in similar fashion, and their tongues argued tenderly with each other in an extended debate...

"Just out of curiosity," Anna said breathlessly once they had concluded their kiss, "what _did_ you get me?"

Yoh handed her the plastic bag. "A hand warmer! Oh, perfect!" She stopped raving abruptly, however, and gave Yoh a guilty look. Blushing, she asked, "Remember how I said not too long ago that I didn't want the present?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I lied."

"No, you were right. Screw the presents. You don't need that thing. I'll keep you warm tonight."

_Smack!_

"Owww!"

"You sicko!"

"What? Oh...no, no, no, not like that! I meant...come here."

Yoh pulled an arm out from his jacket, tossed it around Anna's slender waist, and kept it there with his hand.

"Ooh, this _is_ warm," she said. She kissed his cheek where she had just slapped him. "Sorry about that."

"No problem. Although, you know, that shouldn't be _totally_ out of the question tonight, right? I mean, you didn't get me anything, technically..."

"Hey, you already had your Christmas miracle."

"You know, all _I _want for Christmas is you, too, and I bet you would be lots of fun to, ahem, unwrap..."

"All right, that's enough, Yoh. Keep your wrapping paper—er, shirt—on. Anyway, Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas to you too, Anna."

"Good. Now let's get home before you make another innuendo. This thing has to end somewhere. Think of Kefra, the poor guy. It's Christmas morning and he has to write these stories that no one reads."

"Right. Well, here, have a look at this."

"What?"

"Is this a candy cane in my pants, or am I just happy to see—"

_Merry Christmas!_


	31. Unscripted

Note: This was supposed to be done before New Year's Day 2009. Obviously, that didn't happen. It was also supposed to be a one-shot, but it got pretty long, so I decided to make it a two-parter. This is part 1. Sorry for the interminable delay, but I've had papers out the wazoo and consequently been pretty burnt out, writing-wise, for the past few months. Anyway...enough excuses. Hope you like this!

Unscripted

_Kiss #30_

"And...cut! That's a wrap, people. Good work. Remember, everyone, we're getting the whole week off. Happy New Year, and don't come back till January fifth." The words, sharply articulated yet pouring forth one after another like pellets of cereal into a bowl, could only have come from the director's mouth. When he wasn't yelling at the key grip to get the lighting just right, he could usually be found lounging on his chair. In fact, Yoh thought as he took one last glance at the cameras, the director never _did_ seem to leave his post on the chair except maybe to grab some canapes from the refreshment table.

"I don't know about you, Anna," he said, passing by the table to snag some leftover sandwiches and chips, "but this vacation couldn't have come at a better time. How many takes did we do to get that fight scene with the X-Laws right?"

"Forty-eight, I think," she replied, removing the string of beads from her neck and slinging them upon her shoulder. "Marco's wig kept slipping off. I told the boys in makeup to quit messing around and just hairspray the damn thing on, but you know, pretty boy Marco won't get within twenty feet of anything that might get a tangle in his 'do."

"Hey! It was forty-six!" An airy yet discernibly angry voice corrected her. The speaker ripped the blond wig off his pate, sending hair pins flying upon the table and into the bowl of chips and dip. "And Anna, don't tell me _you've_ never wasted an hour trying to get tangles out of your lovely blond locks."

"Oh, Marco," Anna said, twirling her beads around her finger and waving the strand in his face, "when are you ever going to come out of the closet?"

"Maybe once Yoh learns how to swing a sword!" Marco pulled the wire-rim glasses off his nose and gestured wildly with them. "Your parries look like something I do when I'm sweeping the floor. And where did you learn to thrust?"

Yoh calmly took a sip of punch and spoke. His voice, unlike Marco's, was about the same both on the set and off—and he was just as irrelevant too. "Heh, Marco, I bet you've done your fair share of thrusting with Lyserg in the green room."

"I've never been so insulted in my life!" he roared in response, unbuttoning his holster and slamming it to the ground.

"Save it for the cameras, Liberace," Yoh deadpanned, bobbing his head forward sharply so that his headphones clattered to the floor. "You'd think that with a budget as generous as we've got, we could spend the four thousand yen to get actual headphones. These mock-ups are about as comfortable as doing those fight scenes in bathroom slippers."

"You want to talk about cheap props?" Anna asked incredulously. Her voice, too, was virtually unchanged even when the cameras stopped rolling, and Yoh wasn't acting when he shuddered involuntarily at hearing her kvetch. "Did you see the final cut of last week's episode? The one where I cook dinner for you? Those close-ups were terrible. Where the hell did they find that fake broccoli? A Little Tykes supermarket playset?"

"Yeah, I don't even know why they bother putting episodes like that in," a deep, well-enunciated voice chimed in. "Isn't this a kids' show? I remember being eleven. All I wanted to see was the fight scenes. Screw all the 'meanwhile, back at the ranch' stuff."

"Well, Ryu," Yoh said to him as he removed his elaborate wig, "maybe we'd film more fight scenes, you know, if each one didn't take forty-eight tries to get right."

"For the last time, it was forty-six! And they weren't all me. Learn to handle a sword!" Marco screeched.

"Yeah, I bet you get plenty of practice handling Lyserg's sword..."

"I've taken enough from you!" he yelled, storming off the set.

"That's not what he said," Yoh called after him.

"What's gotten into him?" asked Ryu, rubbing at the fake hair on his arms. "Damn, this stuff doesn't even come off in the shower."

"Who knows? Lyserg probably told him he found a girlfriend."

Anna laughed. "I've never seen anyone more in denial."

"Well, maybe Tao Jun, when I told her she only showed up in so many episodes because of the boob factor," Ryu suggested, making the appropriate gesture in front of his chest for emphasis. "Anyway, are you coming to the New Year's party? We're trying to get most of the actors' union to come. Naruto and Sasuke are supposed to show up and rumor has it they're gonna kiss at midnight."

"What? Geez, talk about pandering to the fangirls."

"Okay, if that's not really your thing, two words. Free alcohol."

"You keep forgetting," Yoh said, sounding as dismayed as he looked, "you play an adult on the show because you're an adult. And Anna and I play kids because, well, we're still kids. Although," he continued confidentially, "if you could sneak us a leftover bottle of something, that would be great."

"I think you've been buttoning your battle uniform a little too tightly," Ryu wheedled, even going so far as to undo the topmost button of Yoh's outfit. "It's a New Year's party, for God's sake. The director isn't coming, and even if he was, who cares? Live a little, baby."

"Well..." Yoh tried to size Anna up, wondering about her feelings on the matter. Granted, they played bride- and groom-to-be on the set, but in real life they barely spoke, and Yoh wasn't too keen on making her think he was a typical teenage degenerate. Of course, by the standards of his generation, he wasn't, but if a career in acting had taught him anything, it was that boys and girls operated on completely different—and often incompatible—wavelengths. He didn't know whether or not suppressing his urge to accept Ryu's invitation and have a few drinks would improve his standing with Anna. True, he was a seasoned actor, but here he was live on the air without a script.

"What are you looking at me for?" she demanded hotly. The set lights were off and the blush that tickled at her cheeks had to be genuine. She continued, before he could decide what to make of it, "If you want to go, just go. I think...if I don't have anything else to do, I might go too."

"Uh," Yoh said intelligently, demonstrating why he had chosen television acting over improvisational theatre.

"Master Yoh," Ryu piped up, slipping back into character, "might I have a word?"

Yoh nodded blankly. Ryu whispered something into his ear.

"So long as you're going, and I'm going," Yoh said stiffly, looking anywhere but into Anna's eyes, "maybe we could go together?"

"Gee," Anna said icily, shooting an accusatory glare at Ryu, "I wonder where you came up with that idea." Ryu pasted on a saintlike grin and batted angelic eyes at her. "In any case, _if_ I actually go, you can find me at the north entrance of the Niigata station at six-thirty. If the clock hits 6:31 and you're not in sight, I'm getting on that train."

Both Yoh and Ryu marveled at the degree to which life, at least in Anna's case, imitated art. Ryu felt compelled to remark upon the parallel. "Man, Anna, you've, uh, really adapted your character in your everyday life, huh?"

Anna shrugged. "If you think I'm a bitch, no one's forcing you to go with me. Happy New Year, Yoh, Ryu." With a final rattle of her bead necklace, she turned her heels and left.

"Thanks, Ryu," Yoh said once she was out of earshot.

"Think nothing of it, young master," he said, returning to character. "But I could always tell, when we're filming, that you had a hard-on for her."

"What?!" Yoh blustered, looking down unconsciously.

"No, not literally," Ryu amended. "Well, not most of the time, anyway. But yeah, you're so obvious."

"Is it really that apparent?" Yoh practically bounced with nervous energy.

"Totally, dude. I know you have a major crush on her. Like in all those shots at the En Inn, oh, you can so see the chemistry between the two of you. Sometimes I just wanna put hands behind your necks and push your faces together. So much sexual tension you could cut it with your sword. Makes for great television, I think, but man...I know what it's like to constantly be around someone that you have to pretend not to like. It's a special kind of hell, am I right?"

"Oh, no," Yoh said, cupping his face in his hands. "You're not crushing on Tamao, are you?"

"So what if I am?"

"Dude! She's like, what, thirteen?"

"Fifteen next March. And you know what they say, 'If there's grass on the field, play ball!'"

Yoh simply shook his head.

"Kidding. Anyway, look, I think I'm actually gonna have to shave this fake hair off. Hell if I know how they can keep every strand of this stuff stuck to my arms, while Marco's wig keeps slipping off. I'll see you at the party. Hopefully with Anna."

"Yeah, hopefully," Yoh replied, looking not at all hopeful.

The illuminated clock hovering above the south entrance of Niigata station told Yoh it was already a quarter past six as he hustled past under it. His pace soon slowed considerably, though, as he encountered the crowd within. _Of course. Everyone's heading to the temples for New Year's celebrations. I can barely see my own feet in this mob—how will I be able to find Anna?_

Yoh was about as agile in real life as he was on TV, fortunately, and he exploited his lithe nature as he maneuvered through the throng. On his tiptoes, he weaved between people, yelping out "Sorry!" whenever he nudged someone. With all the jostling he was doing, it was only a matter of time until someone returned the favor. His superior reflexes allowed him to see the man before him raise his forearm to check his watch. Unfortunately, since Yoh was in mid-step, he couldn't alter his course.

_Crack!_

"Oh, my God! Are you all right?" It seemed to Yoh that he was hearing the words from under water—the volume ebbed and flowed, crested and rolled. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you coming and...You're bleeding! Does anyone have a tissue? Anybody?"

"Hey, I know you!" A boy of about seven or eight began pulling on the man's cuff, drawing it over the watch that had just clocked Yoh. "Daddy, run away! You just gave Yoh Asakura a bloody nose!" He jumped in front of his father and spread his diminutive arms wide. "Yoh-_sama_, please don't hurt Daddy, okay? It wasn't on purpose. Please?"

"No hard feelings, kid," Yoh said. His own voice sounded odd to him, like he was pinching his nose shut. "I'd give you an autograph, but I've got a date in ten minutes."

"A date?" the boy asked, still looking awed from standing so close to the _Shaman King_ star. "You mean like with a girlfriend?" His eyes opened wide as he gasped. "Do you mean Anna is here too? I wanna meet her, Yoh-_sama_, please, please!"

"Kid," Yoh said, with a lot more wistfulness in his voice than he meant, "I'd love to meet her too."

With that, Yoh, still feeling dizzy from the blow to his head, slunk away into the crowd once more. The warm stickiness oozing onto his lips and chin told him his nosebleed was still in full flower, but he didn't have time to tend to his injury. Besides, he noticed that on account of the graphic appearance of his wound, the crowd tended to give him a wide berth as he wobbled towards the north entrance.

_If the clock hits 6:31 and you're not in sight, I'm getting on that train. _Anna's words emerged in his mind then, urging him to pick up his pace. Competing with those thoughts was the nagging suspicion that he should at least make a cursory effort to wash the blood off his face. _What if Anna sees me like this? We don't even use fake blood when we're shooting the scenes...Aw, hell, I'll leave it, maybe she'll think I got into a fight or something. Girls like a guy with street cred, right?_

Yoh was close enough to the north gate now to feel the wintry air from the wide-flung doors filter through the crowd and waft onto his still-bloodied face. The sheer density of the crowd, moving away, toward, and around him, worried Yoh. He realized that although Anna wore her trademark black dress on the set at all times, there was no guarantee that she would adhere to that austere dress code when the cameras were off—in short, he had no inkling of what to look for in the crowd.

"This has got to be a joke. That only happens in _manga_, right?"

It took a little while for the words to sink in, and once they did, Yoh was if anything _more_ confused. At least he could answer the question of who had spoken the words. "Anna?"

If his words were delayed, or his expression a little slack-jawed, neither his confusion nor his recent injury could be held accountable. Yoh was simply taken aback by the figure suppressing a laugh before him. He needn't have fretted about not recognizing Anna in unfamiliar clothing; she was wearing her standard black outfit, but somehow, even off the set, and cast in the sallow fluorescent lights of Niigata station, she was radiant.

Yoh stopped admiring her appearance just long enough to acknowledge her speech and ask the obvious question. "Erm, _what _only happens in manga?"

"You know," she replied, finally letting the pent-up laughter escape from her thin lips. "The whole 'guy sees hot girl and gets a nosebleed' gag. You're a stitch, Yoh. Where'd you get the fake blood? I bet someone in makeup thought it'd be hilarious, huh?"

"It's real, all right. You really think I'd need fake blood for that? If you were any prettier you'd make me anemic."

"Oh, stop," Anna said dismissively, waving Yoh's compliment off. "Real or not, that blood needs to come off your face before we get to the party. I suspect your face will be red enough from...other things...once the night gets on," she said disdainfully, making a drinking gesture to illustrate what she meant. "But we don't have any time! My God, let's get to the platform before that train leaves without us!"

Anna's fear was well founded, as it turned out. Seconds after they tumbled onboard, the doors slid shut.

"It's not a long trip. Come on, let's get that stuff off your face." Anna plucked through her purse and withdrew a pink handkerchief tasseled with lace. "C'mere, Yoh. That should come right off..."

But Yoh moved his face no closer to Anna and her outstretched handkerchief. "No way. Is that really yours?" he asked, staring at it in disbelief. "It's so..._feminine! _Nice to know that the Ice Queen thaws a little once the cameras stop rolling," Yoh chuckled.

"Is that so? Fine, show up at the front door with a bloody face for all I care," Anna sniped, deliberately folding the handkerchief before sliding it back into her purse.

"I...what? Okay then," he said, not really knowing how to respond to that.

A few tense seconds of silence elapsed. Yoh wiggled his nose, curled his upper lip, and exhaled through his nostrils sharply, trying to convince the dried blood to leave. Anna looked around the train car, willing herself to find the posted ads and maps interesting. Their willpower began to wane. Yoh resigned himself to his bloody-lipped fate and tried to see his own reflection from the scratched window. Anna's field of vision drifted out of focus; every ad doubled itself, until she could take no more, and gazed out the window on her side.

Two pairs of reflected eyes stared into each other, ethereally piercing.

"How did it happen anyway?" Anna was still facing the window.

"Oh, well," Yoh replied, his reflected eyes breaking contact with Anna's, "had to put some punks in their place. Collateral damage and all."

The reflection of Anna's eyes was swiftly replaced by a blaze of sashaying goldenrod strands. She was as sharp as a poorly maintained piano, and just about as unpleasant to listen to, especially when she detected a lie. "Sure you did. You walked into something, I bet."

"No, I swear. You should have seen me in action. I only spared their lives because there were witnesses."

Anna rolled her eyes histrionically. "Witnesses? Bet you gave them quite a show, tripping over your own shoelaces and faceplanting into a vending machine. Am I close?"

Yoh adopted a hurt expression. With his bloody upper lip, it looked ridiculous. "You don't think much of me, do you?"

"Well, you must not think very highly of me, either," she said, sweeping her hair back with a haughty jerk of her neck. "Trying to pass off that self-induced bloody nose as some kind of battle scar. Who the hell are you trying to impress?"

"Who the hell else would I be trying to impress?" he blurted out.

"Me?!" Anna shot back. "Why would you need to impress me any more?"

Like two people witnessing a train wreck, Yoh and Anna almost simultaneously clapped hands over their own gaping mouths and stared straight ahead with bulging eyes.

_Oops_, he thought.

_Oops, _she thought.

"Uh, any more...than you would need to impress a three-toed sloth. Because we both would care the same amount—none at all," she stammered.

"Right," Yoh nodded, too eagerly, "right."

Then silence. Both then inhaled sharply, as if to speak.

"Anyway—"

"About that—"

Silence again. This time, a little less awkward. Only one sharp breath this time—Anna's.

"We...should be arriving soon. Heroic or not, that blood really should come off your face, Yoh. The other guests might jump to conclusions."

"Let them!" Yoh said, more boldly than he felt, or meant to. "Then I can tell them the story of how I fought off half a dozen thugs—"

"Sure. And then I could tell them how it really happened. You tried to kiss me on the ride over, and I had to put a stopper on your libido," Anna countered, slapping the air for emphasis.

"Ha! Me try to kiss you?" he replied, still with a kind of swagger he didn't truly feel. "Don't flatter yourself. I'd sooner kiss Manta."

"And you single-handedly winning against six ruffians is more believable? I can't imagine what kind of fantastic bullshit you'll be crapping out once you're drunk, if you're telling these kinds of lies while sober. Oh well. We could all use a good laugh on the set." She groped around inside her purse.

"You said it. Especially with you draining everyone's morale," Yoh sniped.

"What?" she screeched. Yoh saw now what she had just been looking for.

The pink handkerchief.

It looked decidedly un-cute now, crumpled up within Anna's tight fist, with just the strangled edges poking out. "Draining everyone's morale, huh? Well, you can just clean the damn blood off yourself then."

With a furious fling, the balled-up kerchief disappeared within the recesses of Anna's purse. Yoh sat there lamely, staring at the purse as though his gaze had the power to recall the kerchief, or perhaps recant his words. Then he sighed, turned toward the window and, working from his dim reflection, began picking off the blood.

Yoh gave a start when he heard Anna's voice break the silence. "You're never going to get it all off like that," Anna said disdainfully. Her hand went inside her purse again, this time in search of her mirror.

It was an embarrassing thing to accept from her, but he was grateful for the offer. Yoh felt foolish holding the small round mirror before himself. It was dusted with a light coating of some sort of makeup that smelled faintly of wax and left light tan smudges on his fingertips. "Ick! It's getting makeup all over my hands!"

"Yeah? Well, you're getting dried blood all over my mirror. Tit for tat."

"What do you even need it for?"

"Huh?"

"Like, on the set, they need to make us look just right before they roll the cameras. Marco practically lives in the dressing room. But you don't need any of that crap. So what's with the makeup? Obviously you don't have any need for it."

Anna was silent for awhile. She simply watched Yoh as he tilted the mirror and did his best to rub off the dried blood. Apparently her lack of response didn't bother him, or else it went unnoticed. She sipped water from her bottle. Finally she licked her lips and spoke.

"Are you...saying I'm pretty?"

"No," Yoh said, distracted by a stubborn spot of blood on his chin. "Pretty doesn't do you justice."

The mirror's tilting stopped. Yoh froze with one hand in midair and the other with two fingers poised on his chin. Anna took this in stride. "Yoh...I can never trust you with any of my secrets. You're proving to me that you can't even keep your own."

"No...I...meant...uh, it was an insult! I meant to say it the other way around."

"But that's okay," Anna continued, as if he hadn't spoken at all—and for all the good it did, he may as well not have. "I may never need to tell you. Because actions speak louder than words."

She took another sip of water, then drizzed some onto her handkerchief. The water darkened the cloth to a crimson. "Why trust reflections," she asked, prying the mirror from Yoh's frozen grasp, "when I'm right here?"

The wet cloth felt clammy and cold against Yoh's face, but Anna's scrubbing was gentle yet effective. The kerchief tickled at his cheeks before wiping away that stubborn spot on his chin.

Then it danced upon his lips for several seconds—odd, because his lips had been clean for some time. Anna traced his lips with her finger deliberately. He thought of the water bottle, which had moments ago been upon _her_ lips—

_An indirect kiss!_

"That...that's the last of the blood stains," Anna said, but not before swabbing his lips once more.

_Is she doing that on purpose? Does _she _realize, or am I reading too much into this?_ But before he could make any sense of it, the train car doors slid open.

"Just in time, too," Anna said, her voice excited yet betraying nothing. "Well, Yoh, the night is young and we have arrived."

The blood had just been cleaned off his face, but more was rushing to his head to take its place. He felt dizzy—from confusion mostly; he was excited, but still didn't know if he had any reason to be. He wouldn't have a chance to sort it out, either. He saw himself exit the train, but not because he wanted to. He looked at his arm—it had been tugged through the door—and saw, clamped around his wrist, five slender fingers and a smooth palm...

"Don't just stand there!" Anna implored, eyes twinkling. "Let's see where this night takes us!"

_To be continued_


	32. PunchDrunk

Summary: Yoh's bound to get in trouble when a bit of alcohol loosens his tongue when he's with the guys. Can he make the most of it?

Written: Throughout 2009 and 2010. Finished 2/9/10.

Rating: **T**for **strong language**.

Punch-Drunk

_Kiss #31_

Had he any particular desire to mull over his situation, Yoh might have succumbed to bitterness long ago. Indeed, successful as _Shaman King_ was on the air, little of that success trickled down into his wallet.

But Yoh found it difficult to sulk over his poverty at the moment, as he strolled up the curving cobbled pathway that led from the front gates of the estate to the mansion proper. His attention was partly stolen away by the topiary, and the plumage of the scattered flamingos and ostriches that, even in the fading twilight, could still be seen. The main distraction, though, was not the mansion that loomed at the top of the gentle slope. Yoh looked up at the colossal white structure and felt his head swoon. No, Yoh was not feeling the effects of vertigo; rather, his dizziness was attributable to the person walking beside him – and with her hand clasped within his, no less. He chanced a sideways glance at her. She was staring straight ahead, mesmerized. Yoh thought he could hardly fault her for having other things on her mind than him, as the mansion was an impressive sight indeed. Soon he too came to fixate upon the mansion as they crested the hill and he saw it in its entirety. Before the porte-cochere a large fountain had been installed. A marble cherub shot a perpetual stream of crystal clear water from his bow into the basin below. Yoh glanced into the agitated water and saw a shimmering sheet of coins lying beneath its surface.

"Make a wish," Anna said, rifling through her purse and pulling out the first two coins she could find. She pressed one of them into Yoh's palm. Startled, he jerked his hand, and the coin toppled out of his grasp. Still at a loss for what had just happened, he stared dumbly at the coin as it lazily wove its way through the currents and came to a rest at the fountain's bottom.

Anna shook her head in mock disappointment. "Butterfingers," she sighed. Her coin was still solidly within her grasp, until with a flick of her thumb and a piercing metallic ring, it was sent tumbling on its way.

"Paying the wishing well a visit, huh, Anna?"

She as well as Yoh turned toward the source of the interruption. "Hey, Ryu," Yoh acknowledged with a grin. Anna merely nodded curtly at him.

"But I'd say save your money, Anna – your wish already came true, if I'm not mistaken," Ryu continued, looking significantly at Yoh.

"Oh, shut up, or I'll show you where you can sheathe your wooden sword," Anna blustered. It was doubtful that her anger, even if it were genuine, was responsible for the shade of red her face had suddenly taken on... "Shouldn't you be hitting on Tamao instead of bothering me? I'll call the cops in advance and save us both some time."

Several seasons of forgotten lines, prop failures, lighting shortcomings, and costume mishaps had endowed Ryu with an unflappable sense of calm. Hoping some of it would rub off on Anna, he said, "Deep breaths, Anna, relax. Why don't you and your boyfriend – "

Anna's reaction to Ryu's choice of words was instantaneous. It was almost like Ryu had just used several unutterable curse words as well as a couple of choice racial slurs. "_What_ did you call him?"

Ryu smiled, no sign of strain evident on his face. "You and Yoh," he amended. "Why don't the two of you come in, mingle, nibble on some hors d'oeuvres, have a drink?"

"What is it with guys and drinking?" Anna screamed. "It's always 'I can't deal with this problem head-on, so I'll just chug a beer and it'll magically solve itself.' Why don't you look for the solutions, instead of trying to find them at the bottom of a bottle?"

"Sometimes the problems," Ryu said with a meaningful glance directly into Anna's eyes, "don't want to be solved."

Anna was not so slow on the uptake as to miss what he was implying. "Really, you're saying that I'm the problem? Look at this guy! He couldn't act his way out of a paper sack! You could wallpaper this entire mansion with the scenes of his that end up on the cutting-room floor. I can't help it, all right? It just happened! I didn't _want_ to fall in love with someone like that – "

Yoh stared at Anna, slack-jawed. Ryu looked stunned. A supremely horrified expression reigned upon Anna's face. She looked nowhere in particular.

No one made a sound. The fountain gurgled behind them.

Anna decided, after several seconds of silence, to carry on as if the long pause hadn't happened.

"...So I didn't! And thank God too, there are plenty of fish in the sea."

Yoh was still reeling too much to even consider chasing after her as she dashed off into the mansion. Ryu, the master of keeping composure, shook his head rapidly as if trying to clear it. He still looked dazed as he sat down on the edge of the fountain and lit a cigarette.

"Want one?" The query came from behind a cloud of smoke.

Yoh accepted, mostly because it would give him something to do that wasn't totally confusing or shocking. As he coughed violently, he wondered how people could stand the things, let alone become addicted to them.

"Watch out, those things'll kill you someday."

Yoh's eyes were watering from the smoke, but he blinked hard and, squinting, recognized the person who had just spoken. "Horohoro! Good to see you, man."

"Yeah, long time no see," he replied. "Seems like they haven't done an episode with me in ages. I've kind of been letting myself go, and this party won't help me much there." He patted his stomach for emphasis. "Ren too, but it seems like he can eat whatever he wants and not gain a pound."

"Ren's here too?" Ryu asked, and in his excitement he let his cigarette fall from his lips. With a brief sizzle, it hit the water.

"Of course I am," came a cheery voice from just behind. "This is the closest thing to a reunion we're gonna have. Especially since our brilliant screenplay calls for zero episodes with us this season. But never mind that. Boy, is it good to see you!" Ren motioned for Yoh to stand. He did, and was immediately assaulted by a viselike bear hug. His surly, loner attitude was invented totally for the cameras – in real life he was amiable and loquatious. But Ren's strength wasn't fictionalized; for such a diminutive kid, he packed a punch.

It was only then that Ren noticed it was Yoh who was smoking, not Ryu.

"Smoking is bad," Ren chided.

"I know," he said impatiently. "God, it's not like I'm mugging people in order to buy crack. Why's everyone making such a big deal over this?"

"It's just," Ren explained, "unlike you, is all."

"Yeah," Horohoro added, a rare expression of concern crossing his face. "What's going on? Talk to me, bro."

Yoh cast a glance at Ryu. "C'mon, let's go inside. Maybe if I chug a beer, all my problems will magically solve themselves."

"What?" Ren looked apoplectic. "So now you're a raging alcoholic in addition to being a chain smoker? Next you're going to tell me you do a line of cocaine before every scene."

Ryu got to his feet. "Nothing like that, Ren. I'll try to explain. Let's go in, though, I'm starving."

* * *

Horohoro nodded with solemnity. "Ah. It all makes sense now."

Things, after all, have a way of making sense when you're splayed over a dangerously comfy leather couch. That goes double if that couch is situated in the middle of a party in full swing, surrounded by merry guests, plentiful food, and chipper atmosphere. But despite all the merriment around them, the mood was undeniably somber.

"Girl problems, huh?" Ren put in. "Nothing a little food can't solve. Garcon!"

A waiter who was passing by halted on a dime. "Yes, young master, what do you wish?"

"Those appetizers you've got there look great. How about you give us that tray and keep 'em coming?"

The waiter made no effort to hide his irritation, but nonetheless set the entire tray down before Ren and the gang. "As you wish, _sir_," the waiter said stiffly, spitting the "sir" like a sunflower seed husk, before stalking off.

Despite himself, Yoh reached for a cocktail weenie. "Yea, love stinks, doesn't it?"

"Amen to that," Horohoro nodded. "All I need in this world is a good imagination and a strong right hand."

"Too much information," Ren said with raised eyebrows, scooting away from him. "Cheer up, Yoh! You know what they say, right? Eat, drink, and be merry." He plopped the rest of his quiche Lorraine in his mouth for emphasis. "I think they go in that order. And you look like you could use a drink, if I do say so myself."

"And a drink you shall have!" bellowed a voice from across the room. A well-built young man, maybe a couple of years Yoh's senior, barreled through the crowd with the aid of the push cart before him. His bright orange hair instantly identified him to Yoh, and before he could so much as scoop some ice into a glass, he was greeted enthusiastically.

"Ichigo, you son of a bitch! How've you been?"

The _Bleach_ star shrugged as he lined up champagne glasses along the side of the cart. "Same old, same old. Ever since we changed studios everything sucks. You can visit me, you know. All of you," he said, smiling warmly at Ren, Horohoro, and Ryu. "Save me from Kuchiki's emo-rage and Rukia being an uber-slut."

"Wow," Yoh said, looking on as his old friend struggled valiantly with the stopper on his champagne bottle. "Things have really gone downhill in a hurry, it seems."

"Naturally. All your best friends are right across the street, and then one day" – the champagne cork popped off, punctuating his speech – "just like that, all gone."

"Don't say that," Ren interjected, standing up and putting a hand on Ichigo's shoulder. "We're still here, aren't we?"

"True, true," he replied with a slight grin as he decanted the champagne into the flutes. "I guess the takeaway is, you gotta live it up while you can, since God only knows what'll happen tomorrow."

"Words to live by," Ryu agreed as he passed around the glasses of champagne. Raising his in the air, he exclaimed, "To Yoh! May your love life problems solve themselves!"

The newcomer looked puzzled. Seating himself beside Yoh, he asked, "Love life problems? Now we're in really familiar territory."

"Oh, yeah. Join the club." Yoh sipped his champagne timidly.

"Already got the lifetime membership, I think."

"Really? A guy like you saying that?" Yoh swirled a gulp of champagne around in his mouth. "I mean, c'mon, I think even _I _would go out with you."

Ichigo nearly spewed a mouthful of champagne, but he regained his composure quickly. "I'm flattered, I think. And after another drink or two, who knows, I might take you up on that offer." He got up to dig another bottle out from beneath the ice. The cork came off much easier this time around. "Freshen up your drinks, anyone?" While he topped off everyone's glass, he continued, "But seriously, Yoh, I could say the same of you. I could, but I don't think I'm drunk enough yet." He laughed. "You see what I mean, though?"

Yoh took a pensive sip. "Huh?" Clearly the time he had spent thinking had paid off in spades.

Ichigo rolled his eyes and gestured at him with the now-empty bottle. "You are, as they say, the complete package. All the girls I know would melt inside if you looked at them with those innocent eyes, or if you draped that buff arm around her shoulder, or even said sweet things to her in that voice of yours..."

"God, why don't you just make out with him already?" Ryu teased.

"Why, because all you guys are watching," Ichigo answered smoothly. "Bottom line," he continued, facing Yoh again, "don't sell yourself short, bro. She's a little confused, I think, and maybe a little scared. You two have known each other for a long time and things totally change when you decide to try being more than just friends. But still, I think once she comes around to giving it a shot, Anna's lucky to have a guy like you liking her."

Yoh nodded for a couple of seconds. Then he froze. A trickle of champagne even dribbled from his immobile lips. At last he managed words. "But...I didn't even mention Anna..."

"How stupid do you think I am...we are? We've all known pretty much since day one that you two were meant to be. It was just a matter of you going for it."

Yoh moved his eyes from face to face, and each one nodded its assent at Ichigo's assessment. Overwhelmed with this information, he found nothing to say but "Really?"

The glass, by now empty once more, slid out of Yoh's shocked hand. This time it was Ryu who got up to return the glass, now filled again, to him.

"Don't look at us like that," Horohoro urged. "Nothing wrong with it. Sometimes you can just tell."

"The time for talking has passed!" Ryu had lapsed back into character. Something about the "Ryu voice" impelled others to listen, despite how hammy it was. "The time for action has come. Will you, Yoh-_sama_, answer the clarion call and confess your love?"

Ichigo was thoroughly unimpressed by Ryu's exhortation, voice and all. "I say go for it. What's the worst that can happen?"

"She says no, I lose a great friend, and things get really awkward on the set."

"Who taught you to be such a downer?" Ren chided. "Besides, do you _really_ think you're gonna get 'no' for an answer? Think about it. I know it's asking a lot of your none-too-plentiful intellect, but really think about it."

"Oh, kiss my ass," Yoh said irreverently, but inside the gears were already turning. He thought of the way they had comported themselves on the train ride over. _That whole thing with the wet handkerchief, that just _had _to mean something..._ His memory drifted back further. _There's always been a kind of, tension I guess, between the two of us. Maybe that's what it feels like when you're meant to be something more than friends and it never happens..._

Yoh snapped out of his deep thought to find all four of his companions staring at him like a fish in an aquarium.

Ren made an exasperated face. "Well?!"

Yoh sighed. His fingers trembled as he rose his glass to his lips. He downed its contents in a single chug, followed up by a deep breath. "Ichigo, you're right. God only knows what will happen tomorrow. But I do know what will happen tomorrow if I don't do anything. It'll be yet another day of uncertainty. Another day of going through the motions on the set, feeling like nothing matters because I'm too busy wondering, does the girl of my dreams even care that she's ten feet away from someone who will try to keep her happy for the rest of her life? Yeah, the worst that can happen is I'll get rejected. But you know what? I just want to find out already. It's the not knowing that's killing me. Maybe she hates me, I don't know. But I do know that I love Anna. And I can't keep it to myself anymore."

"No, she doesn't hate you. I'm quite sure of it."

"How do you know – _WHAT?!_"

For Yoh had recognized the voice of the person who had just spoken. Granted, it was without its usual iciness, but he would know that voice anywhere, having heard it in his dreams for years...

"In fact, she loves you. And she only feels comfortable admitting this," Anna continued, monotone, betraying nothing, "because from the looks of it, you're drunk off your ass and won't remember this tomorrow morning. But Yoh...oh, you're so, so dense sometimes. Didn't you come to suspect, maybe, after all the times I "accidentally" admitted liking you, that maybe, possibly, I liked you? You drunk bastard, if you only remember one thing from tonight, make it this.

"I love you, Yoh. Always have and always will."

Yoh had remained stock still while Anna talked to him, and now he was finding it difficult to move, or speak, or do anything, really, other than mentally process what he had just heard. Finally even his brain called it quits.

_Oh, what the hell._

And without any forethought Yoh was on his feet and, in one fluid motion, had embraced her tightly and planted his lips upon hers. Anna, despite having just confessed her feelings, was taken aback by this for an instant. But she, too, gave up on trying to make sense of it all and kissed him back...

But only for a second. "Wait a minute, you taste like...Apple juice?"

"Of course," Ichigo nodded. "I may be a bona fide Soul Society bad-ass, but I'm not a criminal. That's what I served Yoh."

Anna snatched up the empty bottle he had pointed to. "Martin Ellis™ Non-Alcoholic Sparkling Apple Cider?" She paused for a second. "So you're not drunk, and you said all that stuff about me while sober, _and _you're going to remember this all perfectly tomorrow..."

"For the rest of my life, I think, actually."

"Well, shit." Anna looked hard at Yoh for just an instant. Then she shrugged. "Oh, fuck it."

Back on the couch, Ichigo did a double-take. "Wait a minute! Isn't this supposed to be a New Year's story?"

"Yeah, but come on," Horohoro said, pointing at Yoh and Anna. He did his best to avert his eyes but nonetheless saw just how passionately they were now going at it. "Do you want to be the one who tells them, 'Sorry, but no more making out, we have to get to the New Year's plot'? I didn't think so."

Ren simply shrugged. "Look at those two. Go for the gold, Yoh, that's years of pent-up emotion right there."

Ichigo sighed. "I'm happy for them, but damn it..."

"What?"

"I guess this means now he won't be going out with me after all."


	33. Valentine's Day Meltdown

Valentine's Day Meltdown

_Kiss #32_

Winter's grasp upon Japan was beginning to loosen, but the air was still chilly. Yoh found it difficult enough to stay awake in class even under normal circumstances, but the pleasantly heated air of the classroom seemed to add ten pounds to each of his eyelids. He made a sincere effort to find something invigorating about the material they were covering in class that morning, but Mr. Ozaki's bland voice and the dry subject matter didn't help.

At all.

"...Commodore Matthew Perry, whose 1853 arrival in Tokyo ended over two hundred and fifty years of the Tokugawa shogun's policy of isolation..."

Yoh blinked and nearly found himself unable to open his eyes again, but he shook his head violently and perked up for the moment.

"...prompting the Meiji emperor to adopt a top-to-bottom restructuring of the government. The primary change was reversing the Tokugawa policy of aloofness. In fact, the Meiji era was characterized by an embracing of Western innovations..."

Yoh gave up. His forehead thumped against his desk with a reverberating thud. Unfortunately for him, years of teaching sleepy students had given Mr. Ozaki superhuman hearing. "Asakura!"

Without even lifting his head, he knew every neck in the classroom had swiveled around to get a good view of him. He peeled his eyes open and saw he was right.

"Pay attention or pay the price in detention!" Yoh thought the wordplay was clever the first time he heard it. Sadly, it wasn't quite as amusing the tenth time around. Regardless, rather than risk Mr. Ozaki's further ire, he went through the motions. He sat up straighter. He even cracked his composition book open to one of its many pristine pages and made an attempt to take notes. His resolve eroded, though, and before long he was doodling in the margins.

"Yamamoto! Is my lecture about the Meiji Restoration perhaps confusing you enough for you to mistake this for art class?" The teacher had abandoned his post behind his desk and was now on his feet – _a warning sign_, Yoh thought. In two smooth strides he stood before the offender and snatched up her notebook.

"How very flattering," he noted drolly, holding the notebook open toward the class. "I think the devil's horns make me look _very _intimidating. What do you think, students?"

Yoh laughed involuntarily. A few other students joined in. Yamamoto-san was quite the artist; it was a caricature of Mr. Ozaki for sure, and a good one at that.

"Asakura likes it, I see. So do Kimura and Suzuki. You know, I'm not so uptight that I don't think it's funny myself. I can't deny that you have talent, Yamamoto."

Yoh noted that she had already been embarrassed, but at that her face flushed deep crimson.

"However, even if Hokusai was sitting in my class painting a masterpiece, I'd still have to put him in detention for not paying attention. Such a shame too, on a day like this...Very well, class dismissed. Except for our budding artist here."

"Not getting enough sleep again, huh?" The sympathetic voice that addressed Yoh seemed to come from nowhere, but he knew who had just spoken.

"When do I ever?" Yoh stood up and, as if by magic, the top of Manta Oyamada's head came into view. "Thank God Anna isn't in any of my classes, or I'd never get a break. Ozaki busting me is nothing compared to her. _Nothing_," he repeated, pushing the composition book into his backpack for emphasis.

"She never lets up?" Manta's wide eyes gazed up at Yoh and he took in just how fatigued he looked. A faint mist seemed to obscure his eyes, making them appear unfocused.

"Not for a second. That's not an exaggeration, I even have nightmares about her sometimes..."

A low whistle exited Manta's thin lips. "Then I suppose for you, this day is like any other. That's too bad, man."

Yoh languidly slung his backpack across one of his slumping shoulders as he and Manta headed for the exit. He nodded – but paused with a foot in the doorway. "Wait, what? Should today be different?"

Manta took this in stride – literally. He didn't even stop walking, and nearly collided with the now frozen Yoh. In the hallway it slowly dawned on him that something was out of the ordinary. Maybe it was the way the hall buzzed with energy, or the several couples who were exuberantly striding up and down, unabashedly walking hand in hand. Or, for that matter, the even more adventurous ones who, under the cover of their locker doors or strategically placed binders, were obviously making out...

"Yeah, Yoh. It's Valentine's Day."

It wasn't just the fatigue that was making him numb as he trudged down the hall to the cafeteria.

"I can't believe … Actually, never mind," Yoh began glumly as they stood in line for some of the school's uninspiring grub. "I _can_ believe she'd treat Valentine's Day just like any other. That's definitely her style." He punctuated his declaration by slamming his tray down, and the lunch lady promptly responded by scowling at him through thick, foggy glasses.

"Sorry," he mumbled sheepishly as the lunch lady, mollified, ladled a generous portion of something Yoh didn't care much to identify upon his plate. It was brown and smelled, if not appetizing, then at least palatable, and that was good enough for him. Manta, on the other hand, looked utterly revolted at the melange plopped on his plate.

"God, what _is_ this?" he asked once they had found a place to sit. The cafeteria was usually abuzz with hundreds of students reveling in their midday break, but Valentine's Day stirred the atmosphere into a wild excitement. The table at which Yoh and Manta had seated themselves was no exception. Guys and girls sat across from, or even right next to, one another, twiddling hair, laughing anxiously, twirling chopsticks nervously.

One such girl brought her tray over and sat on Yoh's immediate right.

_Anna!_

The notion was dispelled as quickly as it had formulated in Yoh's mind – her build was about right, but her hair was black and without the requisite bandana, and her facial features completely different.

"Oh, hi, Chiemi," Yoh said by way of greeting. He grinned. "I can't believe Ozaki would show your drawing of him to everyone in the class. What an asshole."

"Yeah, you're telling me." She rolled her eyes and unshouldered her purse. "Guess what he made me do for detention, though. You'll never guess."

Manta was still tentatively jabbing the brown mass on his plate with a chopstick. Yoh shrugged. "Beat the dust out of the chalkboard erasers?"

"I wish. He made me – get this – sketch a portrait of him! What a conceited … Ugh!" She slammed her purse onto the tabletop in disgust. A small white box bound in red ribbon tumbled out.

The effect of this was instantaneous. The two young men sitting across from Chiemi both locked eyes upon the box. The sight of it transformed them from classmates and pals to bitter rivals.

"She made them for me!"

"No way! That box has got my name written all over it!"

"_Your_ name? Why the hell would she give _you_ anything for Valentine's, except for a slap?"

"Because I'm smart! And handsome, naturally–"

"_Handsome_? If anyone's got good looks, it's me, and don't you forget it, Mr. Unibrow."

"Hey! At least I can fix that. Which is more than I can say for your tiny–"

Chiemi watched the intense argument with more than a little mirth. She smirked, cupped a dainty hand to her mouth, and whispered in Yoh and Manta's direction, "The chocolates aren't for either of them. But should I tell them now, or enjoy the show a little longer?"

Manta laughed, putting him at ease enough to try a bite of whatever was on his plate. It was a momentary lapse of judgment that, at the sight of the expression that crossed his face immediately afterward, was a big mistake.

Yoh, meanwhile, shrugged ambivalently. "Gee, you know, I like candy as much as the next guy, but if I wanted chocolate so bad, I'd just buy a bar or two and spare myself the arguing."

"That's not the point!" a voice called out, and at first Yoh thought one of the two quarreling classmates had uttered it, but it was Manta who continued, "They're symbolic! Not to mention homemade..."

"You can make chocolate at home? That's amazing," Yoh replied, his voice as well as his gaze trailing off into the bustle around him.

"Well, I didn't _make_ it, technically," Chiemi admitted, still looking amused at her two classmates' continuing argument. "I bought some Toblerone bars and melted them. You can pour it into a mold."

Yoh winced. "Eww, moldy chocolate. Maybe I'm glad no girl gave me any."

"Not that kind of mold," Chiemi said. She shook her head, but smiled as she did so. "It's kind of a plastic shell that the chocolate cools off in, that gives it a neat shape. Teddy bears. Hearts. Whatever. Then when it's not totally melted, but still soft, you can kind of sculpt little swirls or a message or something in it."

"Sounds like a lot of work," Yoh opined. "But then, you always have been the artsy type. I bet yours turned out great!"

Chiemi smirked dismissively, but from the way she suddenly broke eye contact with Yoh it was obvious his praise embarrassed her. "Yeah, it was _loads_ of work. If you heat it too much it hardens into caramel and sticks to the pan like crazy! Not to mention the smell. And I used white chocolate and food coloring to make pink hearts, but white chocolate's totally different..." She tore open her carton of milk for emphasis. "Not something I'd want to do again. Even if I am, as you say, 'the artsy type.'"

"So why'd you put yourself through all that, then?" Yoh looked at the little box with a new reverence, knowing now the work that went into its contents.

"Some people are worth that extra effort, you know?" If Chiemi was a bit bashful earlier, she was in full-blown embarrassment now. Her brown eyes peered out flightily from above fiery red cheeks.

"Who's the lucky guy?" Yoh wanted to ask, but he didn't want to make her any more uncomfortable. Instead he said, "Whoever you made them for is real lucky."

Though he thought he hid his bitterness well enough, Chiemi was perceptive. "Hey! It's okay. You can't really be a" – she made air quotes with her fingers as she spoke the next word – "'playa' anyway. You have Anna! You gotta admit that makes you pretty lucky yourself."

_Is our relationship really common knowledge already?_ Yoh wondered. "She didn't give me anything. Valentine's Day is one of those holidays she would rather pretend didn't exist. Which is great, since she's _so_ loving on an everyday basis."

Yoh thought his sarcasm was so thick that it was now dripping on the floor, but after blinking hard he saw it was just milk dribbling down from Chiemi's chin. "Aw, c'mon, cheer up! Look at it this way." She put the milk carton down and picked up the box of chocolates. "I had to work my ass off to make this, and I still could get rejected. But you don't have to make anything or worry about being shot down!"

Yoh nodded, but his eyes wandered around the cafeteria. He wondered what it felt like to be given chocolates by a pretty girl who was eager to take a chance on a handsome boy. He envied the couples who were already going steady and took the holiday as an opportunity to bask in their affection for one another. He wished he could be that guy who held his girlfriend's hand as they enjoyed lunch together. Just once he wanted to glance about the room furtively and, when no one was looking, dart in towards Anna's face for a quick kiss...

He knew it would never happen, and watching the cavorting couples in the cafeteria did nothing to improve his mood. "Oh well. Like I said, I'll just swing by the convenience store and pick up a couple of Hershey's bars." Yoh still hadn't touched his food, but he figured by looking over at Manta's still nearly untouched meal he wasn't missing out on much. He wouldn't have time to eat much of it even if he wanted to, though. The crowded cafeteria was beginning to thin out as the end of lunch break drew closer. He took a halfhearted bite and shuddered involuntarily.

"I know, right? What _is_ this shit?"Manta asked. It was rare to hear him curse, and Yoh took notice.

"Yeah, this … is just that bad. Well, Chiemi, good luck with your boyfriend-to-be, I'm sure he'd love the chocolates. God knows I would."

Chiemi looked like she wanted to say more, but she just nodded. "Thanks. You'll be fine, Yoh. Trust me."

* * *

"Okay, class, let's take a look at number six. 'Michiko and Kenji go to the movies. At the concession stand Michiko buys three pretzels and two chocolate bars' – "

_Really? _Yoh thought angrily. _Even my math textbook is out to get me...I bet they saw a really shitty movie anyway. Serves him right, that chocolate-getting bastard._

" – 'and pays a total of 1700 yen. Kenji buys one pretzel and three chocolate bars' – "

_What a dick! Like the two bars she's giving you aren't enough! I hate you, Kenji, I hope they kill you off in the next edition of this textbook._

" – 'which cost a total of 1500 yen. Find the price of one pretzel and one chocolate bar.'"

_I'll tell you the price of a chocolate bar! YOUR SOUL! Was it worth it, Kenji? Huh?_

"So, class, how do we go about solving this? Yes, Ito? … Yes, very good. If we let, say, _p _represent the cost of a pretzel and _c_ the cost of a chocolate bar, then using the information provided in the story problem, we can create a system of equations like so."

As Mrs. Higashiyama, the math _sensei,_ began writing out 3_p + 2c = 1700_ and _p + 3c = 1500_ on the chalkboard, the class came alive. Yoh saw a hastily scrawled note being passed rapidly towards the back of the room. He saw a few hands interlocking under desks and more than one kiss.

The display did nothing to ease his feelings at the moment.

"Say we wanted to solve this by elimination. Takebayashi, would you care to demonstrate?"

_I could solve this by elimination, all right. Kenji + Me With A Semiautomatic Firearm = problem solved by 'elimination.' That jerkoff._

"While he works that out, why don't we have another student show the rest of us how it would look solved via substitution. Let's see..."

_Okay, Higashiyama, here's how it goes. Substitute me for that Kenji assface. And substitute Anna for Michiko. And make them go to a good movie. One where the good guy has a girlfriend who gives him some fucking chocolate on Valentine's Day!_

"...Er, Asakura, is everything all right?"

Yoh was really getting himself worked up. He snapped back to reality and looked down at his clenched fists. He could feel the heat of his rage billowing off his chest and face.

"Um...Yeah, I was just..." _What excuse could I possibly make for looking super pissed off in the middle of math class?_ "Y'know, teenage angst and all. Sorry."

"Ah. And it being Valentine's and everything. I understand. Say no more. Why, I myself spent far too many February fourteenths alone in my youth, and I ended up fine...But I digress."

_I'm going to end up becoming a high school math teacher? Oh Lord, maybe I should solve myself by elimination instead..._

"Right, so we multiply three through the entire equation, just like Takebayashi did here, and end up with _3p + 9c = 4500_. Then we subtract and, once we flip the signs, _7c = 2800_. A chocolate bar is four hundred yen. Well done, Takebayashi."

_It costs a lot more than that._

"Well, class dismissed. Have a safe Valentine's Day. And I'm sure they taught you in health class all about being safe."

Yoh trudged numbly to his locker, keeping his head down as he did so. Looking up to see the hallway hijinks was too much for him to stand. He could still hear the giggles and lip-smackings of blossoming love, though. It was with great vindictiveness that he wrenched his locker open and greedily yanked his orange headphones out. He put them on defiantly and headed for the school's front entrance, his arms crossed tightly.

When he was just two steps short of leaving the building, a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

He turned around deliberately, not lifting his gaze from the floor.

"Anna!"

"Why are you so surprised? Were you expecting your valentine or something?"

Despite his anger he could not bring himself to reply to Anna's smart remark with one of his own. He uncrossed his arms. Anna tucked a folded paper into the crook of his left arm, which now hung limply at his side.

"It's a shopping list and some money. Keep your receipts so I know you went to the right stores. If you're going to get home later than eight-thirty, don't bother coming back at all."

Yoh stood dumbly upon the steps of the school, staring at her shrinking figure.

"Happy Valentine's Day to you too, Anna."

He sighed a long, hopeless sigh.

Then he did the only thing he knew how to do whenever Anna was concerned:

Obey.

He withdrew the folded sheet of paper. Tucked inside was a pair of crisp thousand-yen bills. The unfolded paper itself was more of a map than a shopping list, with just a few lines of writing. A few of the locations on the map were highlighted in yellow. Yoh couldn't help but notice they were scattered all over town.

"God, this is going to take forever. At least I have until 8:30, but...Look at all this stuff! It's so random, too. We need a computer! She could just buy all this online."

Indeed, the things Anna requested were esoteric, to say the least. Yet the indomitable spirit that made him a respectable shaman meant he wouldn't give up, even if it seemed to him a fool's errand. With a resolved, if heavy, heart, he made his way to the first yellow dot on his map...

* * *

The many shopping bags suspended from both his arms were a burden that was impossible to ignore, but at least Yoh had planned his route after the first couple shops to minimize travel time. He had procured every last item on Anna's list, but it was now a race against time. A glance at his Oracle Pager told him he had just ten minutes to return home. Running was always an option, but Yoh opted not to; there were too many fragile objects in his bags, like the vial of nail polish that was precisely the same shade as Anna's bandana, or the four-inch blown glass sphere. Rather, he power-walked, a choice that made him look kind of silly, but at least made it much less likely that he would break something.

_You know, the best part of this is, I still need to cook dinner after all of this._

_ Ohh, dinner. I'm so friggin' hungry. I dunno what the hell they served us for lunch, but I'd gladly eat a plateful of it right about now. 'Course, I had no idea I'd be doing the Supermarket Shuffle today, did I?_

Yoh's fantasizing about finally getting some food in his belly helped him pick up the pace, and with a couple of minutes to spare, he made it to Funbari Hill. His home neighborhood looked so tranquil in the twilight, but this was no time to enjoy a leisurely stroll. He didn't even pause to wonder why, here and there, a husband, wife, or child might have pushed aside the curtains to glance out the window at the weird kid with the blazing orange headphones and about ten plastic bags streaming from his arms.

At eight-thirty sharp, Yoh stepped into his home. A rustling filled the air as several plastic bags slumped to the floor. Yoh closed his eyes as he tried to rub some feeling back into his tired arms.

"Anna! I'm –"

"Right here," came the reply, and so she was.

Right there.

This was not at all usual. Without exception, Yoh could find Anna either sitting on the couch watching TV, or doing whatever it is she did in her room, when he came home.

"Oh...er, there you are," Yoh said, taken for a loop. "I guess you must be really excited to see the stuff you wanted me to buy..."

Anna smiled thinly. A light was on in the kitchen – another oddity – and the residual brightness it cast illuminated her face in a dull glow that was just light enough to admire it by. She knelt to retrieve the bags, one by one. Then she got up, stopped in the doorway to the kitchen, and turned around.

Yoh's eyes never wavered from her.

"Close."

"Huh?"

"You said that you think I must be excited to see the stuff you bought. And I said, that's close."

She rummaged through the many plastic bags and plucked an item out here and there.

"I'm excited to see..."

Anna motioned Yoh over into the light of the kitchen.

"_You_, silly."

It was hard to say what took his breath away at that moment: her admission, or the sight that lay before him on the kitchen countertop.

_She cooked?_

Anna squeezed his hand tight within hers – another action that left him rather short of breath – and led him to the table.

"Well done, I have to admit. I was afraid this crazy shopping list might not buy me enough time, but it was perfect!"

Yoh was too shocked – no, too delighted – to care much that the shopping list had been one giant red herring. "I should've known! You _never _wear nail polish."

"That's actually one of the few useful things I made you buy," Anna said. It could fairly be said that Anna was the type to delight in others' suffering; but in this moment, she seemed to be reveling in Yoh's shock. His eyes indecisively roved back and forth, between the banquet laid out on the table and the joyous face of Anna.

"I can't believe you thought I was ignoring Valentine's Day just because I didn't get you chocolates," she said as she unscrewed the cap on the nail polish.

Yoh did feel a little stupid for making such a big deal about it. "Wait, how'd you know I thought that?"

"You were talking to Chiemi about it. I couldn't help but hear, your table was right in front of mine."

"Oh." The two arguing classmates in front of him at lunch had distracted him so much he never thought to look behind him.

"Anyway. You know me, Yoh. This whole holiday pisses me off. It's just an excuse for candy companies and greeting card companies to get rich off something that already makes everyone who has it wealthy beyond their wildest dreams."

Yoh was almost too busy staring at the casserole that sat at the center of the table to hear her. The tomato slices that garnished it had been arranged into a heart. "Oh. You mean love."

Anna gave a start. She was convinced that he had only been half-listening at best. "Yeah. And that's why I didn't get you a worthless card or some mass-produced chocolate. I hope you understand."

Yoh said nothing – he simply watched Anna as she applied nail polish to the other item she had withdrawn from the shopping bags – the little glass globe. When she was done, she blew on it and set it down on the table.

Once it was in place, covering a lighted candle, he realized what it was.

The candle flame flickered within the globe. Anna's nail polish cast a faint pink shadow on the wall in the shape of a heart.

Anna drew a step closer to Yoh. Half the heart shadow was now upon her chest.

Yoh drew a step closer to Anna. The other half danced upon his shirt.

Anna looked down. Yoh looked, too.

She reached out and rested a warm palm on Yoh's chest. "Our hearts..."

Yoh, all nervousness forgotten – obliterated – by Anna's touch, reached out his palm as well. "...United as one."

Tentatively, Yoh wrapped his other arm around Anna's back. She pressed her body against his. "You're amazing, Anna." He was surprised at the softness of his voice. "And I didn't even get you anything for this special day."

"Considering how hard I work you, I'd say we're about even."

Anna couldn't see it because her head was firmly nestled under his chin, but Yoh smiled. "Wait. I lied. I got you something after all."

This got her attention. Anna's head moved back, hoping to catch a glimpse of this surprise.

It was all the opportunity Yoh needed.

His lips were upon hers in a flash, and she was too stunned to reciprocate – but only for an instant. Soon Anna's lips joined in, but Yoh's enthusiasm overpowered her. She felt the kitchen countertop pressing at her back, and Yoh's rapidly breathing chest pressing at her front, and felt smothered. But being smothered in love was a pleasant way to go, and she yielded herself to it. His hands were caressing her sides and then her shoulders; they brushed at her neck; they nuzzled her cheeks. Anna was once again blindsided by this raw torrent of passion from the young man who was ordinarily so meek and obedient – but not so much as to miss what he said once his lips were finally free.

"I love you, Anna. More than anything."

The dizziness she still felt from his intense kiss told her beyond a doubt that this was the truth.

"I love you too, Yoh."

Anna looked down. She frowned. "Oh, boy."

Yoh didn't have to look. He blushed madly. "Sorry..."

"Don't be sorry. I should've put one more item on the shopping list..."

She whispered it into his ear. It was his turn to feel lightheaded...

Happy Valentine's Day!

_If you plan on having a "very special" Valentine's Day, make sure to put one more very special item on your shopping list! Be safe!_

_This message brought to you by Kefra._


	34. Neatness Counts

Summary: Yoh's messy room pushes Anna past her breaking point. It's time to get organized! But will he find more than old clothes and trash buried within?

Written: Finished at 5 am on 7/17/11, after literally months of off-and-on writing and brainstorming.

Rating: **T** for **coarse language** and **romantic themes**.

Notes: This story's a mess (no pun intended) because it took so long to write. But I figure a bad story is better than none at all, right? Let me know what you think.

Neatness Counts

_Kiss #33_

The sky stretched for miles around Funbari Hill, shrouding it in a faded blue tarp and gently baking its inhabitants in the sort of heat that makes them venture outside. The only blemish on the otherwise perfect sky was a single pathetic excuse for a cloud that hurried on by, embarrassed to be ruining such a magnificent sight.

In short, it was a perfect morning.

And Yoh Asakura could only admire it from his bedroom window.

Actually, he couldn't even do that very well at the moment, either. The azure sky peeked out at him from behind a veritable mountain of unsorted junk. The pile, in that respect, wasn't all that different from the overall appearance of his room. It was, even by Yoh's lax standards, a mess.

_God, I've been trying to clean this up since the crack of dawn, and it still looks awful. And if even I think I'm doing a crappy job so far, imagine what Anna would say about it..._

But Yoh forced such frankly frightening notions out of his head. He tried to focus on the task at hand: conquering the mountain. Not really knowing how to proceed, Yoh blindly grabbed a double handful of junk from the pile and scattered it onto his _futon_ for sorting. He gasped when he saw Amidamaru's stone tablet tumble from his grip and onto his bedding.

Without missing a beat, Yoh's ethereal companion billowed forth from his home. "Ah, Yoh-_dono_, a morning without compare this is! Would that I still had lungs to breathe the air, as I am certain of its unrivaled crispness today."

Yoh knew in his heart that he would be lost without his samurai spirit's guidance, but oftentimes the things Amidamaru told him left him feeling, well, _lost._ This was one of those times.

"Uh...sure, Amidamaru. Crispy air is great, huh."

"Indeed, Yoh-dono." The samurai's eyes were normally serene like Yoh's, but just then they narrowed and widened just as quickly. "But why am I rambling about air which I can no longer breathe, when there are more pressing matters to which we must attend? Yoh-_dono_, if our daily training routine is postponed any longer, I fear Lady Anna's wrath will be swift and terrible!"

"It always is, isn't it?" Yoh asked rhetorically. "Relax, Amidamaru. Today Anna's made it clear that I'm trading in my ankle weights and running shoes for a dustpan and a can of Pledge." He kicked the base of the junk mountain for emphasis. "She made it _very_ clear." He shuddered violently enough to inadvertently kick the pile of junk again.

Amidamaru's ghostly form slowly made a complete circuit of Yoh's room. Once he had turned all the way around and faced Yoh again, an aggrieved look pulled at his features. "Forgive my saying so, Yoh-_dono_, but it certainly appears that Lady Anna's judgment on this matter may not have been entirely misguided."

"If that's your seventeenth-century way of saying that she's right and this room looks like shit, then yes," Yoh replied, "I'd have to say you're right too. But where to begin? Ugh."

For what seemed to be the hundredth time that morning, Yoh pondered his next course of action. He was growing weary of chipping away at the mountain of clutter. He wanted to blast it to smithereens and truck the rubble away. He smiled as visions danced in his head. A cruise missile sailed through the window, leaving behind a neat pile of smoldering ashes where his junk pile had just been. Then he blinked and the pile reappeared. He sighed, blinked again, and stared the pile down.

"Can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs," he said. "I'm going to make a huge mess. That'll force me to do _something_ at least. Here goes."

Yoh took several steps back and eased into an athletic stance, as if he was a placekicker getting ready to blast the world's most disgusting football through a pair of imaginary uprights. He put his head down as he moved forward and accelerated. The pile was just a step away now. He closed his eyes and swept his arms before him as he descended...

Yoh, along with an assortment of junk, tumbled into the hallway. Dazed, he rolled over and pushed himself up.

It was all for nothing, though, since the first thing he saw once he got to his feet leveled him again.

"Yoh, you have got to be kidding me."

The words were uttered with a quietude that ran completely counter to the livid, red-streaked face from which they came.

"You must be the only person in this _galaxy_ who can spend four hours cleaning a room and end up making it even messier. But why am I surprised? What made me think that you'd wake up this morning and decide to stop making a total mess – pun intended – out of everything I ask you to do?"

Yoh learned a long time ago that there was absolutely nothing he could say to cut short one of Anna's rants once they had been set in motion. He simply stood silent and motionless.

"Just what the hell were you trying to do anyway?" Anna's intense eyes – at this stage of her anger, 'slits' is probably a more apt description – focused on the trail of trash that Yoh had tackled out the door. "Surfing? _Sumo_ wrestling?"

Yoh thought on his feet. That was appropriate enough, since he had just risen from the floor again. He plucked up a grungy pair of slacks and said, as sheepishly as he could, "Hmm. Must have been a load-bearing pair of pants."

"Oh, good. Very good," Anna said with a theatrical roll of her eyes. "You know that trick where the guy pulls the tablecloth out from under all the dishes and whatnot? Well, guess what. You've just proven that only works with tablecloths. And guys who aren't complete morons." She was about to elaborate, but the deep breath she had just sucked in went back out peacefully. "Someone's at the door. You're saved by the bell, Yoh."

He hadn't heard anything. At first he thought maybe the magnitude of Anna's yelling had temporarily deafened him, but he knew from numerous unsuccessful attempts to sneak downstairs for a midnight snack that her hearing far surpassed his own.

Amidamaru's dignified voice hovered over Yoh as he labored to push all the clutter out of the hallway and back into his room. "Lady Anna neglected to inform me that she was expecting company this morning. Would it be presumptuous for me to assume you were not told either?"

"Are you kidding? Anna gets her kicks by springing surprises on me. For all I know, her date is here and they're just about to go have a milkshake."

Yoh could have sworn that he heard Amidamaru's armor jangle with shock. "The very insinuation that Lady Anna is unfaithful to you! Unthinkable. No, it is just an acquaintance stopping by to say hello, I am certain."

"Sup. Or would Amidamaru prefer just hello?"

Yoh dropped the armful of stained shirts he had just gathered up. He knew that voice, in all of its grating irreverence.

"Horohoro!" he exclaimed as he spun around to see he had been right on the money. The oppressive climate of Tokyo in the summertime meant that he had traded in his traditional Ainu vestments for a T-shirt and shorts. Save for his extravagant hair, he was now practically Yoh's double.

"Yoh! Long time, man." He smothered his friend in a crushing hug.

"Good to see you. It always is."

"Always? What about today? Anna didn't sound delighted to see me."

"You and the rest of the universe. Don't worry about it."

"She seemed pissed. But ah, I trust you. You know her way better than I do."

"I _do. _Don't you remind me." Yoh retrieved one of the soiled shirts and flung it through the doorway. "So what brings you to my neck of the woods? Especially this time of year, I would think Hokkaido's weather is more your pace."

As if on cue, a large bead of sweat slid down Horohoro's nose and dripped to the floor. "I ain't gonna lie, man. This heat is _intense._ Screw the sidewalk – right now you could fry an egg on my forehead." He made to help Yoh shuttle the remaining articles back into his room. "But I have to do some research. That's why I'm here."

Yoh was genuinely interested, but couldn't resist cracking a grin – and a joke – just the same. "Research? You're some sort of scientist now? Make me some happy pills. No, wait, give 'em to Anna instead."

"Sorry," Horohoro replied, smiling himself. "I'm actually trying to learn more about the butterbur plants. Back home they do fine this time of year, but during the winter the frost kills most of them off. I don't know how I'm supposed to make a home for the Koropokkur with plants that are only alive half the year."

Suddenly Yoh's epic quest to tidy up his room seemed a lot less earth-shattering. "Oh. That's very … selfless of you."

Horohoro waved away the praise. "Just trying to be a good big brother. But right now, it looks like you're trying to be a good room cleaner."

"Oh, you know me." The sarcasm in Yoh's voice almost dripped all over his armful of junk. "People are always mistaking Harusame for a feather duster."

"But on a day like this?" With difficulty, Horohoro peered around the big pile and out the window. "I mean I wouldn't be out there myself. But if I were you, I'd be out there with the clear sky and crisp air—"

"What is it with you people and crispy air?" Yoh asked, shooting an accusatory glance at Amidamaru as he did. The ghostly samurai withdrew into his mortuary tablet, bowing before he did so. "Of course this isn't what I wanted to do today. Two guesses who made me do it."

As he watched Yoh putter around his room trying to set some small part of the mess straight, the crown of hair on Horohoro's head seemed to wilt. "Hey, man. Do you want a hand with any of this?"

Yoh began to shake his head. Then he noticed, one more time, the sheer immensity of the pile of junk. It dominated the room like a lady in leather. "Sure, bro. Would you mind pulling out all the clothes? Just pile 'em on the _futon_."

"You got it." With an exaggerated salute, Horohoro dived right in. Yoh dealt with everything else. He crammed wayward books into his bookshelf. He put records back into sleeves. He began to fill a garbage bag with unwanted things.

If people were to look through the window then, they'd actually be able to see into the room. The mountain of junk was just a hill now, and that was a miracle in itself. But they'd see Yoh and Horohoro and scarcely believe that they were two of Japan's most notorious shirkers. Their work was purposeful, organized, and efficient. Every now and then Horohoro would lighten the mood by taking a shot at Yoh's dated wardrobe, or Yoh would find a diverting tchotchke that he believed had been lost years ago, and the work seemed more like a morning at the park.

In fact, it was just about to become, save for a lack of trees and grass, a day at the park. "Check this out," Yoh said. "I can't remember the last time I played with one of these."

Horohoro tossed an old pair of shorts onto the pile on the _futon_. "What the hell is that? A wooden hammer?"

Yoh laughed. "I guess it does look like a hammer. This is a _kendama. _The two things at the end of the stick are cups. You're supposed to try to flick it so that this ball" – he held up a red wooden ball attached to the stick by a string– "lands into one of the cups." He shook it loosely to gauge its weight. As he did so, the string snapped.

"Whoops!" Yoh chased it down. "I guess it is old." He knotted the broken string and gave the jury-rigged contraption a test flick. Like a perfect fade-away jumper in miniature, the ball landed dead-center in the cup and froze there.

"Still haven't lost my touch." Yoh chuckled. "Wanna give it a go?"

"Why not?" Horohoro asked. "I grew up in Hokkaido. When we wanted to play a game we friggin' threw rocks at each other. This should be fun!"

Horohoro was a bit overzealous in his inaugural try. He put his entire body into his swing, and as the ball neared its apex he began to position himself to make the catch. Yoh's slipshod knot, though, came undone. The ball went one way, and Horohoro went another. Yoh glanced up at this moment to see the ball soaring wildly away. He leaped in an attempt to catch it.

Then time reverted to its normal pace. Yoh didn't make it to the ball, but at least a pile of clothes was ready to cushion his fall. Horohoro wasn't so lucky. Before he really knew what had just happened, he body-checked Yoh's bookshelf.

Anna had a habit of catching Yoh at exactly the wrong time. Today, as Yoh was finding out, she wasn't about to stop. In the span of about five seconds, Yoh's room had gone from tidy to trampled. Anna was way too observant to miss it.

"Yoh."

The blue beads around her neck continued to sway; the rest of her body came to a total halt. Only her eyes moved, taking in the extent of the room's disarray, and even those glued themselves to Yoh's.

"I'm speechless. And _you_," Anna spat, rounding on Horohoro, "believe it or not, I like you. Or at least I've never seen you do anything really stupid. Now, I'm starting to wonder. Really starting to wonder," she added, eyeing up the broken _kendama _that Horohoro was now holding like an ankh against Anna's hellish wrath. "So I'm not going to kick you out."

Given Anna's mood, Horohoro had to wonder whether that was a good thing.

"But I'm keeping an eye on you."

Both boys groaned inwardly. Actually, Yoh's was audible. That was a mistake. She rounded on him like a pitcher making a check-throw to first.

Surprisingly, tidying up the mess they had just made proved easy. Yoh reshelved the books and Horohoro tended to the scattered articles of clothing. Anna proved to be the only hitch in their progress. Her presence clung to them like a shroud, appropriately enough, since she effectively killed and buried any chance of witty banter or imaginative repurposing of the junk in the room. In fact, it wasn't long before she rolled her eyes in an appeal to a higher power and took a spot beside Yoh to help him put the fallen books back.

Yoh cringed in anticipation of her next biting remark, but surprisingly she teased Yoh playfully. Picking up a sizable leather-bound book from the floor, Anna smirked. "I found your doorstop. Make sure it doesn't get lost on your bookshelf again. You might accidentally try to read it."

Yoh wasn't sure how to react. Sure, it was an insult, but at least she wasn't hurling the book at his face. He laughed nervously and glanced at Anna. She was flipping through the book's pages idly. In the process, she freed a slip of paper from its clutches.

"Hmm, what's this?"

Yoh's attention was back to the bookshelf. "My bookmark. I do read every now and then, believe it or not."

Anna knelt to retrieve it. It was cream-colored, matte, and about the size of a postcard. Uneven large handwriting covered its surface. Though it was clearly a child's penmanship, it looked familiar to her.

_May 12. Grandpa gave me this for my birthday. It's so hard! I suck at it. I asked why he got it for me. I told him I wanted a Super Famicom! He said he didn't get it for me. I asked who did. He said it's a secret. Maybe it was Anna! I'll practice real hard and make her like me._

Anna nearly lost her grip on the paper – and on reality to boot. She was no private eye, but she knew beyond the shadow of a doubt who had written those words on the paper, who had bought the present for him, and what that present had been. She chanced a glance at Yoh, who was still rearranging books on the shelf to make them all fit. Then she looked at Horohoro. His pointy chin was aimed straight between Anna's eyes, because his eyes were completely focused on a little red wooden ball that seemed to levitate in midair above his head for several heartbeats.

It was Horohoro's heartbeats that would very soon be accelerating, though.

"Horokeu Usui." Anna's voice was a dagger, cold and steely and sharp. Horohoro, for his part, lurched as though stabbed. Nobody ever called him by his birth name.

"Still playing with toys, I see. In case you haven't noticed, some of us are trying to be productive." Her eyes never wavered from his. He unconsciously dropped the _kendama_ as though it had become too hot to hold.

"Get out. Now." He barely needed to be told once, let alone a second time. He gave Yoh an apologetic look – or maybe it was a fearful one, intended for Anna – and bolted out the door. His footsteps trailed off as he sped down the hall, descended the stairs and slid the front door shut behind him.

Then there was silence. Yoh couldn't very well pretend he hadn't heard Anna exiling his friend. He thought it might be a good idea to redouble his efforts at the bookshelf. He hammed it up, grunting and scrunching up his face as he crammed books into impossibly narrow gaps.

"Yoh."

"Y-yes?" _She can see right through me. _He couldn't help but notice that Anna's tone of voice was unchanged. She might as well have still been dressing Horohoro down. _Here it comes._

"Pick up that _kendama._"

_What's she playing at?_ "Sure thing, Anna." He scooped up the wooden toy and extended it to Anna.

She waved the _kendama_ away. "No. Catch the ball, Yoh."

He couldn't keep his befuddlement to himself. "Huh?"

She merely pointed at the toy. "You heard me."

"Uh...okay..." Yoh swallowed with great effort; his throat was suddenly parched, but to compensate, fresh beads of nervous sweat percolated on his forehead. He flicked the _kendama_ with a shaky yet practiced hand. The red sphere arced gracefully and landed in the center cup.

Anna was as unreadable as the leather-bound book she had teased him about just minutes ago. "Again, Yoh."

He nodded stiffly, but his _kendama_ handling was anything but stiff. He caught the ball in the top cup, then in the bottom one. Then he shuffled it from one cup to another, non-stop, like the bouncing ball that highlights lyrics during a _karaoke_ song. Yoh looked pleased with himself, or at least as pleased as he could look with Anna's wrath looming...

"Impressive. Especially since the side cups are a little smaller than the top cup. And the top cup's crooked. Not to mention, if I recall, the ball is a little lopsided and likes to spiral sometimes."

Yoh blinked. "Yes...How did you..."

"Your bookmark."

Yoh accepted the rectangle of paper. He read the elementary-school handwriting that he recognized as his own. He flipped it over. A younger and less embarrassed version of himself beamed at him from the confines of the photograph. Tightly gripped in his hand was the very same _kendama_ he now held in a now much bigger palm.

"Anna...Did you...make the _kendama_ for me?"

She heard the question. She decided Yoh already knew the answer. "I see that you're a man of your word, Yoh. Just like you wrote on the back of that picture. You did 'practice real hard.' Clearly, you practiced the shit out of that thing. But I can't believe you thought that would make me like you."

Yoh laughed an uncomfortable, self-deprecating laugh. "I was ten, Anna. I was young and stupid. I suppose nothing's really changed."

"Yoh." Anna's voice was still serious, but much warmer. "That thing I made for you is just a toy. I don't care how amazing you are with it. But you just _suspected_ that I _might_ have been the person who gave it to you. And that was enough for you to devote countless hours to getting good at it."

Yoh nodded. He really didn't know what to say. To be perfectly honest, he really didn't know what Anna was saying, either.

"Look, Yoh." She took a tentative step closer to him. "Sometimes the things you do are obvious. Like when I ask for one hundred sit-ups and you do a hundred and ten. Or when you make dinner and there's a nice dessert next to it."

She drew another step closer to Yoh. He was now close enough to her to see that she was quivering slightly. "Other times it's less obvious, like this. I'm shocked. But I'm not surprised."

Yoh had been frozen in place as Anna spoke, but now he found himself drawn to her. He closed the gap between them by another step.

"I'm never surprised because I know you're a great guy, Yoh. I know it because of the obvious things, and the not-so-obvious things, and above all, the fact that I could never love a guy if he was anything less than great."

Now he knew what Anna had been getting at. He gasped. Anna did, too – the gasp of an unsuccessfully suppressed sob that compelled Yoh to take one last step toward her. She did not withdraw. "Yoh," she said as a solitary tear trickled beside her perky nose, "I know sometimes we all make a mess of things." She gestured to the messy room around her. "The important thing is that we clean up the mess as best we can."

Yoh watched as Anna wept silently. A tear splashed upon the wood grain of the floor that he had just polished. Another one was forming at the corner of her eye. She drew in a ragged breath. "Yoh, I'm sorry."

The sight of Anna crying and repentant seemed to reach down his throat and sock him in the gut. Words tumbled out of him, words that were not even close to being able to express his feelings, but would have to do.

"Anna, you have nothing to apologize for."

She seemed to take his comforting as a challenge. "Oh, Yoh! I work you until you collapse. And then I kick you till you get up again. And-"

"And I still give you a hundred and ten sit-ups when you ask for just a hundred. I still make you dessert. I still spend hours and hours doing things that _maybe_, just _maybe_, will make you happy."

"I'm sorry-"

"Because I. Love. You. End of story."

Only it wasn't. For one thing, they hadn't kissed yet, and Anna still had tears in her eyes.

That was about to change.

Yoh's fingertips tickled at the underside of Anna's chin. Words failed him. He wanted to tell her something that would make her stop crying; he wanted to tell her just how deeply he loved her; how all was, and would forever be, forgiven.

Instead, he kissed her.

He didn't try to make a statement with his brain or his words. He used his hands. They flowed through her hair, they danced upon her neck, they caressed the small of her back. Yoh was about to pull away, but a hand pressed hard against the back of his head. He was shocked at Anna's insistence, at the tongue that tried to wedge its way between his lips – who was he to bar entry? United, their lips and tongues apologized more eloquently and passionately than their owners ever could have.

Somehow, they ended up on the half of Yoh's _futon_ that wasn't piled high with his old clothes. He draped an arm around Anna's shoulder and put a sloppy kiss on her cheek. "So, Anna," he said as she gave his arm an affectionate squeeze, "any chance you could help me finish the job?"

Anna blushed madly. For a second it looked like someone was about to get a slap. Then the expression on her face became serious. She looked deep into Yoh's eyes, reflected on how mature and sincere and, most importantly, loving, he had proven himself to be over the years. Then she smiled and whispered something in his ear.

It was his turn to blush uncontrollably. "I meant cleaning my room!" he sputtered.

Awkward silence.

"But," he said, with a playful grin, "I mean, let's not count _that_ out."

"We'll see," Anna said, tugging at the hem of Yoh's shirt...


	35. Restless Spirits

Written: Finished 1/13/2012.

Rating: **T** for mild language.

Notes: Yeah, it's a Christmas story, and it's a few weeks late. You're not my English professor. Sue me. ;) I will try to have the second part finished a little quicker. Enjoy!

Restless Spirits

_Kiss #34_

All along the walls of the cozy living room ran twin strands of green and red garland. Beneath them, frosty windows peered out onto a front lawn piled high with fresh snow. Like a pair of honor guards, a food-laden dining table and roaring fireplace flanked the Christmas tree.

Yoh stood in the center of the room. He was close enough to see his distorted reflection peering back at him from the red bulbs on the tree. He could have knelt before the tree, picked up one of the many gifts, and given it a curious shake. He could have sliced himself some glazed ham or snuck a peek into one of the stockings hanging from the hooks above the fireplace.

Instead, he blinked.

Everything vanished.

"Hmph. Great to see you hard at work as usual, Yoh."

Yoh leapt straight into the air. It was almost as if Anna's chilling voice had coalesced into an icicle and pricked him right in the rear.

"Anna! I was just daydreaming – "

"What else is new?" She slowly sauntered across the room, passing the bare bit of wall where Yoh's imaginary fireplace had been. She stepped through the nonexistent Christmas tree stand and stack of presents. She rested her elbows upon the empty kitchen table. Placing her chin atop both her palms, she leaned her torso forward toward Yoh. She was wearing a curious, almost guilty expression.

It was about then that Yoh took note of her manner of dress. The snappy black get-up that was practically her exoskeleton was nowhere to be seen. In its place was a set of priest's robes. Plain and woven of a coarse brown fiber, they would be winning no fashion or comfort awards anytime soon.

Yoh covered up his confusion by making an irreverent observation. "Anna, I'm sorry to say, but even if you catch the express train, you're still going to be late for that Halloween party."

"Ugh. A party isn't in my immediate future, Yoh. Unless you count the _bons mots_ I'm sure I'll be exchanging with the restless spirits at the hospital."

Comprehension began to register in Yoh's eyes. "Oh, exorcising some spirits? Why aren't you making me do it?" He hadn't meant to say it at all, much less in the tone he used, but it just kind of slipped out.

"You're right, Yoh. In fact, since you so obviously could use the practice, volunteering you for this job was my first instinct." She unslung her _bo_ staff from behind her back and began rolling it to and fro on the kitchen table. "Unfortunately, this job is best suited to an _itako._" Seeing Yoh nod in response, Anna saw fit to continue, "Don't you worry, slacker. There will be plenty of jobs to do once I return."

Yoh pouted inwardly – he knew that when Anna had to do work that Yoh was incapable of, it didn't improve her mood at all. He bit down his dread and instead asked, "When will you return, then? How long will you be?"

"Three days or so," Anna said. The words tumbled out one on top of another.

There was no calendar in the room, but Yoh still knew that meant she would be away tomorrow – Christmas Eve – and the day after …

"Before you ask," Anna broke in, the glint of her eyes daring Yoh to interrupt, "yes, I absolutely do need to be away this time of year. Unless, of course, you want a whole ward of tormented patients on your conscience."

Yoh just grimaced. He didn't see any point in arguing, or indeed anything to argue against. If Anna was needed on Christmas Day, then she was needed on Christmas Day. She was, he had to remind himself one more time, possibly even more powerful than he in many ways, and the holiday season does have its ways of aggrieving spirits that, on normal days, would be content with simply chewing the scenery.

He understood. That didn't mean he liked it.

She could sense his wordless resentment. She took up the staff and tottered towards the front door. Yoh continued to stare at where she had just been. At the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of brown hesitate in mid-stride. Anna was slowly giving Yoh a once-over that lingered upon his face. Awkwardly she moved closer to him, patted his shoulder absently, and stuttered, "You…I'll see you later."

He blinked.

She vanished.

For a time Yoh tried to sort everything out by sitting in front of the television. Watching other people's problems unfold in the illuminated rectangle before the couch kept him distracted, but after a while, he came to envy the world of the sitcom character, where any dilemmas were neatly wrapped up within the half-hour block. Yoh glanced at the clock and wondered how many half-hours he would have to wait alone for Anna to return.

After all the pumped-in laugh tracks and clichéd dialogue, Yoh heard something distinctly different. Someone was rapping on the door.

_Anna!_ he thought as he scurried to the door. He slid it open –

"Rather excited to see me this evening, aren't you?"

That sophisticated, calculating voice could have come from Anna, but it was not her cold eyes he was now staring into.

"Ren!" Yoh did his best to conceal his disappointment. "What are you doing here?"

Ren didn't wait for Yoh to invite him in. "Your fiancée, it seems, sees fit to force me into the role of babysitter."

"So she told you before she told me?" Yoh would have been more incredulous, but he knew better than to be too surprised by Anna's seeming indifference towards him.

"She more than told. She coerced." It took a lot for Ren to display any discomfort, but his sour facial expression spoke volumes. "Anyway, I brought some things to pass the time."

The pair sat face-to-face at the kitchen table. Ren began to pick the black chess pieces out of his backpack while Yoh placed his white pieces on the board.

"I have to tell you, Ren, and don't take this the wrong way, but if someone told me six months ago that I'd be playing board games while my fiancée is away for Christmas … Ah hell, I would've believed it." He thrust one of his pawns forward in exasperation.

"I don't suppose Anna is the festive type, huh?" One of Ren's knights hopped over his wall of pawns. "Such a shame, too. An inn like this seems like a perfect place to host a Christmas party."

"I can't remember the last time I've seen so much as a shred of wrapping paper in this house. But it's all right, I guess."

"All right? I know firsthand that being alone is drudgery. But at what point is the price of company no longer worth it? Christmas, after all, is a pretty big deal."

"You know, I used to think about it a lot," Yoh admitted as Ren ate one of his pawns. "Always wondered what it was like to wake up bright and early on Christmas morning, rush downstairs to find that Santa had left a big pile of presents under the tree. But over the years I guess I just kind of got to take it for granted. It just isn't going to be a part of my life, and that's okay."

Ren captured another of Yoh's pawns. "When you put it that way, it doesn't seem so grievous."

"Still," he sighed, attempting to launch a counterattack with his bishop, "even if I don't care about the presents and decorations and whatnot, how am I supposed to feel about this? You can hate the gift-giving and fake cheer and stuff, but in the end, can you ignore the day itself? Isn't it, you know, _bad_, to spend Christmas alone, especially when you're engaged?"

"Check. I mean, that's the thing," Ren replied as his rook swung down to menace Yoh's king. "She has a reason to be away this Christmas, but damned if the timing of the thing doesn't seem just a little too serendipitous."

Yoh hesitated with his fingers hovering over his king. "In words that I'd understand, please?"

"I'm just saying that depending on how you choose to look at it, the fact that this exorcism just so happens to fall on Christmas is either just terrible luck…"

Ren's queen swooped across the board. Yoh's king was in his death throes.

"Or it happened that way because she wanted it to." Yoh tipped his king over in surrender. "And if she did, you have to ask yourself why."

"Right now I'm asking myself why I agreed to chess. I suck at this."

"I'm no grandmaster myself," the Chinese boy conceded, "nor do I devote any special time to this game. It is simply an extension of my personality. I am suspicious of the other player's motives and intentions, both behind the pieces and in real life. I try to scry into the future, to anticipate any hint of an ill-conceived attack or weakness that may present itself for my exploitation. I may not do so with perfect accuracy, but, as you have just witnessed," he concluded loftily, waving an airy hand over Yoh's fallen king, "it works well enough most of the time."

"Indeed," Yoh said, for lack of a better reply. "So, you have any, I dunno, cards or something?"

"I give you priceless insights into the vagaries of the human mind, and you ask if I have cards?" Yoh couldn't tell if Ren was sincerely incredulous or just overreacting. "As a matter of fact, I do," he continued, rooting through his backpack, "but first, let's go deeper."

"My pal Ren, the armchair psychologist," Yoh laughed. "I almost miss the days when all you tried to do was kill me."

"Is that so? We could do that again, for old time's sake. But let us return to the chess analogy for now. What do you suppose is the reason behind Anna's last move? What should your next move be?"

As Yoh pondered his response, he picked up a bishop and began twirling it between his fingers. "What _can_ my next move be? She…" Yoh sighed and rolled his eyes. "Since you love the chess analogy so much, you could say that, in more ways than one, she 'keeps me in check.'" Ren actually smiled at the lame pun. "This is just the latest in a laundry list of things she's done that I don't like. All I can really do is move out of the way."

"Or…" Ren gripped both sides of the chessboard with his palms and leaned forward until Yoh could count his eyelashes had he wanted to. "…You plan an attack of your own."

Yoh put the bishop down. His imagination easily gave it a face framed by a fiery bandana and swatches of blond hair. He tried to imagine himself, the king, marshaling an army of resistance to give her a taste of her own medicine.

He just couldn't see it happening.

He did see, however, Ren gradually slink back to his seat. He was favoring his friend with a questioning look, one that only intensified the longer Yoh remained silent.

"It's all right," he said at last. A smile came to his lips, and to his surprise he didn't have to force it. "Christmas is best spent with friends and family. I guess if I can't have both, one out of two ain't bad."

Ren studied the woodgrain pattern of the chessboard intently. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed the words he was about to speak. "Jesus, Yoh," he said, still refusing to look at him, "what am I supposed to say to that?"

"Nothing, I guess." He nodded in the direction of the pack of cards. "Just shuffle up and deal."

Ren finally looked up into Yoh's eyes. Something in them was contagious. He gave what passed for a smile on his face and began to shuffle the cards. "Yoh, I don't know how you manage to deal" - he looked down at the cards – "pun intended, I suppose."

"Nothing new to me, Ren. I just play the cards I'm dealt."

"Yoh?"

"What's up?"

"If you make one more pun involving the games we're playing, I'm going to take every last pawn and shove each one up – "

"Loud and clear."

Ren's calculating arrogance may have been intimidating in the midst of battle against other shamans, but in poker against someone as unflappable as Yoh, it didn't do much. Yoh was enjoying the game, and it showed on his expression. It blotted out any exasperation that might otherwise have surfaced as the result of a poor hand. After losing all his chips for a third time, Ren called it a night.

Yoh's toothbrush was halfway into his mouth when he realized Ren was standing right behind him. "Oh, Ren! Are you staying the night? I assumed you had better things to do."

"What else would I be doing? Going to Vegas? You just showed me that would be a good way to go broke."

Yoh grinned. He couldn't deny that it felt good to win after the chess humiliation. "Stay here, then. You can sleep in my room."

"What about you?"

"What _about_ me?"

Ren rolled his eyes. "Where do you plan on sleeping?"

"Um," Yoh grunted as a rivulet of toothpaste lather wended its way down his chin. "Is that a trick question?"  
"No, of…of course not," Ren replied after a second of hesitation. "Of course we can share the room."

Yoh found a frankly embarrassing _futon_ in the linen closet. He tried to convince himself that it was printed with a yellow and brown paisley pattern, and not simply stained by years of various bodily emissions poorly cleaned up, but in the end he decided to let Ren sleep in his instead.

He snickered when he saw it. "I like the print on it," he remarked, pantomiming the act of taking a hit from a joint.

"Those are maple leaves, not weed!" Yoh shook his head, but a badly suppressed smile betrayed his denial.

"Whatever helps you rest, Yoh." Ren partook of a great gaping yawn. "Speaking of rest, I'm exhausted. It's quite a walk to your place."

Yoh nodded and hit the lights. For a while they stared into the darkness on the ceiling, exchanging just enough words to keep a conversation alive, until the only thing that broke the silence was Ren's soft snoring. Aided by a shaft of moonlight, Yoh squinted and saw that one of the pillows he had offered Ren was now lying unclaimed beside him. He corralled it in with a clumsy swipe.

Yoh slid the pillow into the _futon_ with him. He embraced it with both arms and it grew warmer. The pillow cover tickled at his nose. He tucked the end of it just under his chin. Now it was Anna's hair bristling his cheek, Anna's face nestled upon his chest, Anna's waist encircled by his arms…

Ren's snoring was soon covered up by a strange, soft drone. No, check that – Yoh was actually talking in his sleep. Before long, the snoring stopped altogether as the speech grew loud enough to rouse Ren from his slumber. He rose slowly, rubbing his temples as he did so.

"What the hell? Yoh, if you're going to steal my pillow _and_ talk in your sleep, at least cover your face with it, so you don't keep me up."

The mumbling continued. He gave his sleeping friend a soft nudge on the shoulder. Nothing happened. He tried it again, putting quite a bit more force behind his push. He might as well have shoved a wall.

"Do you always talk in your sleep? Ugh, no wonder you don't get to share a room with Anna –"

"Anna," Yoh echoed.

The stained _futon_ took flight like a spooked snow owl as Ren kicked it up in surprise. A single speck of white light – the moon – shimmered off of Ren's wide eyes. It hadn't occurred to him that perhaps his speech was more than just inarticulate rambling… "Yoh?"

"Anna," Yoh said. His face looked tranquil in the silvery light. "You're here."

"No, I'm not," Ren said, but even as the words left him he sensed that Yoh couldn't hear them.

"Nice to have you home." Yoh shifted his hands a little higher. The pillow moved with them. "For Christmas."

Something broke within Ren when he heard this. He stopped trying to wake Yoh up and waited for him to continue his monologue.

"I missed you." Yoh's speech was crisp and clear now. If Ren couldn't see his shut eyes, he would have sworn he was wide awake.

"Oh, that's okay." Ren wondered what it was. "I got one for you this year."

For a moment Ren thought Yoh was going to full-on sleepwalk and act out the rest of his dream on the moonlit stage that was his room, but Yoh was simply shifting the pillow again. It was smothering his face now.

"We can share it." Ren struggled to hear the muffled words through the stuffing of the pillow. "If you like."

Ren's curiosity was really piqued now. He eagerly waited for another clue to figure out just what it was Yoh was offering to share for Christmas. He felt patently absurd, staring as hard as he was at a dark, sleeping figure whose face was obscured by a pillow.

Then he saw Yoh's hands scurry out from the _futon_ and take up a position near the top of the pillow. He wasn't sure, but he thought he heard a wet popping noise, like opening a new jar of jam.

The hands began to explore the pillow cover. Ren heard it again, for sure this time. He thought for a second – and then he blushed.

"Oh God, Yoh, are you making out with your pillow?" He watched for a few more seconds, as if needing to confirm his hunch, though the now rapid smacking noises made it obvious. He averted his eyes. He considered leaving the room. Instead he walked to the window. From behind him the smacking continued.

Ren didn't know what to think. He knew that, for the moment at least, Yoh was happy, but he knew it would be a temporary joy. The morning would come. He would blink. And she would vanish.

He felt lonely, but a single glance at Yoh told him that, if anything, they _both_ were – Yoh perhaps even more so. Every smooch he heard Yoh giving his pillow was a kiss, Ren knew, that Anna had not allowed to be placed upon her lips, and had to end up somewhere. And now she wasn't even here at all…

Ren peered through the glass pane. His sense of direction was uncanny, but Funbari Hospital was quite a ways away. Still he squinted in the general direction. He thought he saw it – a tall, nondescript building with all the lights still on – and imagined Anna inside, waving her beads and staff around, banishing restless spirits.

But wasn't Yoh, in his own way, a restless spirit too, driven crazy from an unrequited love? Didn't he deserve Anna's attention? Shouldn't Anna be at least a little concerned that for every exorcism she was performing away from home, she was also exorcising away another page from the book of memories they shared?

Ren sighed. _Since when am I the deep thinker? _"Yoh, for both our sakes, I hope dreams do come true sometimes."

_To be concluded in Kiss #35_


	36. Exorcism

Written: In around 2 weeks. Finished 1/31/12.

Rating: **T** for coarse language, innuendo, and romantic themes.

Notes: The next chapter I write will be for "In Yoh's Absence," I promise. But this one's good, too! Let me know what you think. Thanks, and happy (very very _very_ belated) holidays!

Exorcism

Kiss #35

With Anna away, Yoh could sleep as long as he wanted. The winter morning's light had a hard enough time getting through the windows, let alone Yoh's eyelids. The birds had long ago migrated to warmer climes, and the only sounds that existed in the vacuum of Yoh's room were Ren's snores and the clock that ticked its way past nine, then ten, then eleven A.M…. Even Ren, the quintessential early riser, kept snoring on.

It was nearly noon when one of them began to stir. Ren sat up, blinking hard. The noon sky was hardly radiant, but it was bright enough for him to see Yoh. Ordinarily the sight of Yoh snoozing was enough for him to snicker inwardly – _he's at my mercy!_ – but this time, all he noticed was the pillow still wrapped tightly in his arms.

Ren shook his head. "Better the pillow than me, I suppose." He remembered how it had been impossible to wake him up last night, so he gave Yoh's side a hard shove…

"What the hell was that for?"

Ren recoiled. His heels collided with the wall. Still surprised at the ease with which he had awoken his friend, he sputtered, "Well, Yoh, uh, you see, last night, you were" – _making out with your pillow and I wanted to stop you? Is that really the best thing to say? _– "Ah, never mind. Sorry."

"Nice way to start a Christmas Eve," Yoh grunted sarcastically, rubbing his flank where Ren had shoved it. Ren looked a little bashful, but whether that was because he was sorry or because he was still recalling last night was a mystery. "Anyway, you wanna help me make some breakfast?"

Ren gave the clock a significant look. Yoh gasped. "We really slept in, huh? It's lunchtime already…" With a yawn and a stretch, he rose and started to walk downstairs towards the kitchen.

The pair had been on countless adventures together, well more than enough for Ren to know that Yoh was, without exception, unflappable. A hint of worry, regret, or sadness never came to his face, even in those tense few moments before a battle that inevitably comes. Knowing that, Ren frowned. Yoh's expression betrayed nothing. Yet the way he was descending the stairs was just wrong. His steps looked devoid of life, right down to the limp hands that slid down the banister like raw cuts of meat.

Ren caught Yoh just as he was pulling a frying pan out from beneath the sink. "Um, Yoh, do you feel okay?"

At this, a smile pasted itself upon Yoh's features. His eyes still looked like a pair of marbles moldering away at the bottom of a fishbowl. "Never better."

Ren, the master tactician, the superior chess player, the cold calculator, was for once at a loss. He watched as Yoh placed a cutting board on the countertop. Something he saw horrified him, and it wasn't the steak knife that Yoh had just picked up. It was almost like Ren had stumbled upon something seedy concealed behind the scenes, as if he had just seen Santa Claus taking off his fake beard and lighting a cigarette behind the plastic reindeer.

_Maybe all those times I saw Yoh smiling and shrugging everything off…_

Ren checked his wallet. He nodded upon seeing there was, in fact, something actually in it. "Yoh, let's go and have some fun for Christmas Eve. My treat."

The shock of Ren making such an offer pushed whatever was preoccupying Yoh to the back burner – which, fittingly enough, happened to be where Yoh ended up placing the frying pan. "Your idea of fun is sparring with me. I just don't feel up to that kind of abuse today."

"No, no. I was thinking more along the lines of lunch, and maybe…" Ren had, in fact, thought of something else they could do, but hearing Yoh's uncharacteristically bitter response made him forget it. "Um, let's see, do you have balls?"

Yoh smiled despite himself. "You would know. You're always telling me I need to grow a pair." Ren smiled too when he saw the familiar glow in his friend's eyes. "Yeah, I think I put a football or something in the storage room. It's been a while, so I have to check if it's still there. I just haven't had the time to play with my balls."

Ren laughed. The joke was corny as hell, but now he was back in the familiar territory of Yoh being silly.

"Well, now's your chance, Yoh. Grab your balls and let's go."

* * *

As it turned out, the football Yoh remembered was still there. It was a little flat, but fortunately the air pump was nearby. They walked for a while, and Yoh was noticeably withdrawn, but at least looking a little less morose. By the time they had finished eating at the restaurant, however, he was downright loquacious.

"I need to walk this off," Yoh said, patting his stomach.

"Oh, Yoh, you're too much. You run, what is it now, twenty miles every day? Then you get a chance to just kick back, inhale your lunch, and sit around all afternoon, and you want to walk more? Anna's got you trained like a Labrador retriever."

_Oops._ Ren had deliberately avoided invoking Anna's name all day. He held his breath, anticipating some sort of reaction to his indiscretion.

"You could say that." The smile on Yoh's face, even to Ren's trained eye, looked sincere. "Now, are you coming with me, or not?"

Yoh left the restaurant, tossing the football to himself. Ren hastily paid the check and followed him out the door. A few minutes later, Yoh and Ren were standing before a wrought-iron gate that fronted a low-slung white building.

"Yoh, isn't this your school?" He got a nod in response. Ren sighed. "What part of 'this is a day off' don't you understand?"

"Trust me," Yoh said. He lobbed the ball over the gate, then scampered over. "Need a hand?"

But Ren's feet were touching down on Yoh's side of the gate almost as soon as the question had been asked. "So let me get this straight. We're sneaking _into_ school? What happens if we get caught? Do they put us in detention at an arcade?"

Yoh led Ren around the corner of the building, down some stairs, and around another building. Their destination came into view.

"Oh. Good call, Yoh."

Shinra Private Academy was never a school known for its athletics, but it wasn't for lack of proper facilities. Football season had just ended, and the field before them was still lined every five yards from end zone to end zone. Even the goal posts were still in place, although someone had brought out the soccer goals and put them beneath.

Yoh hadn't had the time to attempt a pass or catch in quite a while, and it showed. Ren, meanwhile, was a natural. The ball never failed to leave his fingertips with a tight spiral, although his accuracy left a lot to be desired. In spite of it all, every time Ren scrambled to catch one of Yoh's ugly wobblers, every time Yoh leaped at a ball that Ren had delivered a good twenty feet above his extended fingertips, a little bit of Yoh's reticence vanished into the crisp December air. Soon they were ribbing each other, chasing each other down, faking each other out.

"You're not even trying anymore, are you?" Yoh taunted as Ren delivered another errant throw.

"My bad," Ren admitted. He shuffled to the sideline and plopped himself on the grass. "Timeout."

"What's the matter?" Yoh snickered. "Tired?"

"In fact, yes I am. You would be too if every damn pass you had to catch was wobbling around so bad. Seriously, Yoh, it's a football, not a tomahawk."

"Get over here and hold the ball for me. You can sit your lazy ass down, don't worry."

Ren bared his teeth as he propped himself back up, but inwardly he was relieved. _This_ was the Yoh he knew. He kneeled down near the 20-yard line where Yoh was pointing and pushed his fingertips down on the nose of the ball.

"Yoh, if you kick me, _any part_ of me, I am going to make you wish you'd never even seen a football before."

But almost before he could finish the threat, Yoh's body was hopping in a graceful follow-through. Ren was vaguely aware that he was no longer propping up the ball. Then he looked up and saw it, a tumbling blur of brown and white. It was well to the right of the goalposts, but it was still in the air.

Ren frowned, as if trying to find the cannon he knew Yoh had strapped to his leg. "Who taught you how to do that?"

Yoh frowned too. He was still staring at where the ball had crested in the air moments ago. "No one. I'm as surprised as you are. Hell, I thought I might've kicked you in the face. I guess all the training is paying off."

"Training? I thought you said no one was teaching you how to do this."

"Oh, you know, Anna's training regimen—"

Thinking of Anna seemed to suck the exuberance out of the entire field. The emptiness of the bleachers, the absence of players in helmets and pads, the lack of birds flitting overhead – suddenly Anna's absence seemed everywhere. Ignoring Ren's almost sympathetic look, he slunk away, out of the end zone, to the overgrown dried grass behind the field. He found the football and threw it in Ren's direction. Not surprisingly, it wriggled more than a hooked fish. It bounced around near his feet and he secured it about ten yards back.

Ren dug the nose of the football in the ground and began spinning it like a top. Yoh had returned. He looked up at the gray sky and heaved a cleansing sigh.

"You know, Anna or no Anna, this does beat a day of running, hands down."

Ren nodded. Something about Yoh's quick recovery dared him to ask a dangerous question.

"In the end, though. After all the brutal training, after the miles and miles of aimless running, the trips away from home, the badly expressed love."

Yoh had eased into his athletic stance three steps behind the ball. He wasn't waiting for the snap – he was waiting for Ren's question.

"Is it all worth it?"

He looked up at the sky again. Then he looked straight forward at the goal posts. _I've set my sights on you, no matter how far away you may be._

"The answer to that question…" Yoh's foot and the ball made a satisfying _boomp!_ that rattled in the empty bleachers. He hopped on one foot as he squinted at the ball.

"…Is still up in the air."

* * *

Ren didn't look forward to spending Christmas with his dysfunctional family, but traditions were traditions. With a hearty slap on Yoh's back, Ren said his goodbyes. Yoh made the trek back home unhurriedly as the silver sky began to tarnish. By the time he stepped onto the slick wood floor of the En Inn, night had fallen. He flicked the light on and looked at the football in his hands. Even as he gripped its laces with his fingers, he could see it soaring through the air through the goal posts.

_I guess it's not still up in the air. If only I could say the same about Ren's question._

He put the ball back in the storage room. _It'll be a while before I get to play with that again, I'll bet._ He hit the light switch in his room –

There was a package on his _futon_. No, he realized as his eyes adjusted to the light, it wasn't just a package. It was gift-wrapped.

_A Christmas present? Maybe Ren slipped it there when I was busy grabbing my balls._

He laughed, and not just because he had made yet another lame innuendo. _Ren giving me a present? There is only one other person in the world less likely to do that, and she hasn't been here in over a day._

He picked it up and was taken aback at its weight – or more specifically, its lack of weight. He turned it over and over in his hands like a Rubik's cube, trying to figure out why a shoebox-sized present was so insubstantial. Then he caught sight of the label.

_To Yoh. Love doesn't wait. Neither should you._

Yoh ticked off names on his mental checklist. _Not Ren's handwriting, that's for sure. Too small to be Horohoro's, that guy writes like he has mittens for hands. Might be Chocolove's, but since when has he ever talked about love with me? Manta maybe?_

Curiosity was rapidly getting the better of him. _I gotta listen to the box. Not like I really wanted to wait, anyway._

Yoh peeled off the paper. Underneath it was a shoebox after all. He raised the lid and saw a mass of fluffed tissue paper. There was nothing beneath it.

_Maybe it was Ren after all! _Yoh deduced as he combed the tissue paper for some sign of a gift. _He _would_ give me an empty box._

Just as he was about to write the box off as a gag gift, Yoh's fingertips made the bottom of the box skid against something. He realized that wasn't the bottom of the box after all, it was a sheet of paper.

Only two words adorned its face:

_Turn around._

Yoh obeyed and flipped the sheet over. It was blank.

He picked up the box and turned it over. Sheets of red and green tissue paper drifted to the floor. The underside of the box was plain white.

"Ren, I hate you," he sighed to himself. "You win," he muttered as he turned around –

"I'm glad I kept it simple. Otherwise I'd be standing here till March."

The shoebox shot out of Yoh's shocked hands and hit the floor. Yoh almost followed suit.

"_ANNA?_"

"And don't you forget it."

Yoh stared at her incredulously – the homespun brown robes didn't diminish her appearance at all. "What are you doing here?"

The beginnings of a deadly frown crept onto her features. "I could go back there, Yoh. But seeing as those reckless spirits are at peace now, I think I'd rather stay here."

"I thought you were going to be gone for three days!"

"That's what the doctors told me. They underestimated my powers. Believe me, that's a mistake no one makes twice."

Anna slid the hood of her robes back. Yoh saw her eyes now, gleaming as fiercely as the blue beads that peeked out of the robe's collar.

"But there are mistakes that are so unforgivable that they shouldn't even be made once."

Anna bowed her head. The hood slid back down and cast her face in shadow. She took two steps towards her fiancée. "I worked through the night, Yoh. Restless spirits are terrible. They get in your head, especially when you're tired. They know what you want, they'll keep you from getting it, and they'll taunt you for not having it."

Yoh couldn't see Anna's eyes beneath the hood, but he imagined they looked like the beads did now, watery and quivering…

"They made me realize that I couldn't rest until every last one was gone. Because then I could go back home and…and…and…"

The first thing Yoh noticed, after several seconds of being too stunned to notice much of anything, was that Anna's robes were itchy and rough in his arms. It was nothing at all like his pillow, but if anything Yoh hugged Anna tighter than he had ever squeezed the pillow. He loved it all – the roughness, the no-nonsense, unchanging exterior – and he thought that if this hug was better than the pillow, maybe a kiss would be, too –

He didn't have much longer to wonder. The robes were rough, but the sensation that was now upon his lips was tender, though with a kind of urgency that manifested itself upon his tongue. Anna may have been exhausted from the ordeal at the hospital, but Yoh's fire energized her. Or maybe she had been saving a little energy for one last restless spirit she saw every day at the En Inn...

"Anna, you're the best present I could've gotten," Yoh whispered.

"How do you know?" She tugged at the itchy robes. "You haven't even unwrapped it yet."

Seeing that Yoh was about to lose it, she kissed his cheek and propped his head up with her free hand. "Silly. I've got something on under this. I have to! Do you have any idea how badly this robe chafes?"

Yoh thought he was going to get to the rest of the robes after he got her hood off, but the sight of her uncovered head put that plan on indefinite hold. "You're…gorgeous…"

"Oh, come on, Yoh," she giggled softly, although there was no denying the blush that was tickling her cheeks. "This is a Christmas story. We still have to fit a moral in, and then there's the obligatory 'wishing the readers a happy holiday season' thing – "

"Okay," Yoh said. He couldn't resist nipping her on the cheek with his lips. She really was gorgeous, after all. "The moral is, spending Christmas with the one you love is a good thing. And kissing her is even better. Do that, and you'll have a happy holiday season. That good enough for you?"

"So spending time together is good and kissing is better. Wouldn't it be great, then, if we—"

Anna whispered something. Yoh turned redder than the tissue paper scattered on the floor.

"Good night, everyone!"


	37. The End

The End

_Kiss #36_

_"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." -Semisonic, _Closing Time

Everything inside the temple seemed to call for Yoh's attention – the fine red-and-gold Oriental carpet, the rows of pews with dragon heads for armrests, the ornate roofbeam that glimmered even in the dim and fading sunlight.

Yet Yoh remained fixated upon the bronze urn that a Buddhist priest was now carrying, cushioned from his hands by a jade pillow. The priest knelt before the softly glowing incense bowl before the altar and placed the urn just in front of it.

The rumble of a gong finally pulled Yoh out of his fixated stare. He recoiled. A delicate hand rested itself upon Yoh's leg.

He glanced to his right and saw Anna. The expression on her face was hard to place. It certainly wasn't happy, but it wasn't angry either.

Yoh looked forward, where the priest was leafing through his prayer book. He began to chant, and the few others in attendance lowered their heads. Yoh didn't understand any of the classical Japanese, but he tried hard to feel comfort from the words.

Instead he looked out the window. The hill outside looked like a pumpkin field as the light of the sunset played off its tufts of grass. Marble stones, lined in evenly spaced rows, seemed to stand and salute as the sun made its way down.

Another bang of the gong brought Yoh back to the temple's interior. The priest knelt before the altar. He took a pinch of incense and scattered it within the bowl. A man and woman, both no older than Yoh's father, rose slowly and knelt before the altar together. The woman's veil drifted upwards as she lowered herself and for an instant Yoh saw the grief in her eyes.

Yoh felt the hand upon his leg again. Anna was getting up from the pew. With great effort Yoh followed. As he did he smelled the incense, musty and pungent, almost like the smell after a driving rain.

He knelt and pinched some incense between his fingers. He was shaking and some of it sprinkled onto the carpet. He watched the rest of it become smell and smoke. He was close enough to read the inscription on the urn. Still no words came. He rose slowly.

The priest waited until Yoh was several steps away. Then he picked up the urn and made his way down the aisle and out the door.

This time Yoh felt the hand upon his back. There was no more reason for him to stay.

Around him the scene was beautiful. The sky still glowed with fading embers of sunset. The pathway he and Anna followed seemed to be paved with rubies. Ahead he could barely make out the priest.

Yoh was walking between the marble stones now, some dull and weathered, some polished and sharp. The priest stopped in front of one that looked brand new. He bowed his head as if looking down into the pit that had been dug before it. Then he took the urn and put it in its final resting place.

Anna walked to Yoh's other side and accepted the shovel the priest extended to her. She scooped some earth onto it, but hesitated, and put it back. He felt the hand again. This time it was placed upon his. Together they picked up the shovel.

The light was too dim for Yoh to see the urn. He heard chunks of earth pinging against it as he filled the pit. Then he looked up. The priest was gone.

Yoh looked down at the shovel. He dropped it. Then he looked up at the sky. The stars had come out.

He had something to let out, too. Now was the time.

A great sob came from deep within his chest, a huge, heartfelt cry that shook his entire body. He gasped for air but his sadness stopped him with a mocking hiccup. "He didn't," he managed to say.

He tried again. "He didn't have to die!"

Yoh felt the hands again. They were on his shoulders.

"He was…he was my age," Yoh mourned. "Why?"

Even without Anna's hands on them, Yoh's shoulders were heavy with despair.

"I can't believe…I'm never going to see him again."

He stared down at the half-filled hole. There was no sign of the urn.

"Never got to tell him…how much easier life was with him at our side. Never got to say to him…what a great friend he was …or sorry…for all the stupid things I said and did…"

That confession seemed to open the floodgates. Yoh made no effort to stop the tears as they glided down his cheeks. He couldn't move even as he felt the hands upon his back and the warmth encircling him. Her grip on him was viselike, almost angry.

"Yoh." Her voice was muffled by his shirt. "Your friend knew you loved him. You were always so happy together. So carefree. You could tell just by the way you were together. But If I woke up tomorrow and…God forbid, you were gone…"

It wasn't anger making her grip so tight. It was passion. Maybe more than passion…

"Yoh, I want you to know. Know now and know forever that I don't show it well, but…"

Anna squeezed Yoh so tight it pushed the air out of him. She gave a gasp and stole it all.

"Things are so much easier with you by my side. I'm sorry for all the stupid things I've done. And you're a great friend and so much more."

Love is energy – sometimes nervous, sometimes electric, sometimes blinding – and like energy, it is conserved. When a loved one's life ends, the love does not disappear. Sometimes it is cherished in memory, sometimes it jolts people into the realization that life is finite and precious. Yoh and Anna couldn't put into words what their friend's love had done for them. They just knew something between them had changed. And, as they made their way back to the temple, they knew that was good enough. They didn't kiss in the cemetery. Back at the Inn, however, is another story. Literally…

_Dedicated to G.G. (1985-2001)_

_and to anyone who has lost someone before it was their time._


End file.
